Ropes and Purple Christmas Trees
by MangoKat
Summary: Wordgirl/Lazytown crossover. Will Amazing Rope Guy ever like Christmas? And what happens when one of Doctor Two-Brains experiments sends him to a far away land where he meets another eccentric villain? They team up of course.
1. Chapter 1

Ropes and purple Christmas trees

Author-note: Yeah, I have no excuse for this one, I just wanted to do a really strange cross-over.

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><p>"Dinnertime! Dinnertime!" a voice called down the hallway loudly.<p>

Every villain looked up from their cots watching as a guard rolled the dinner cart towards their cells. Getting up as he approached, the guard stopped at the first cell and picked up a tray. On it was three different types of salad and three gingerbread men.

"Here's your supper, lady redundant woman."

The overly stressed looking blond woman reached out and took the tray from him with a glare then disappeared back to her cot. Whistling, the guard went to the next cell and removed another tray. This one had a whole cooked chicken and a gingerbread man on it.

"Here you go, Butcher!"

"Thank yous, Bill. Oh, look, a lil' cookie!"

The large man smiled down at his tray then took a seat on his cot as the guard went to the next cell. Picking up a tray with a large hunk of cheese and a gingerbread man on it, he handed it to the tall, white-haired man who eagerly seized it.

"Dinner's on, Doctor Two-Brains!" the guard announced.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever, go away, eating now." the man said around mouthfuls of cheese.

Moving on, he picked up a tray with a plate of spaghetti on it and handed it to a tall, very thin man who frowned down at it.

"Suppertime, Amazing Rope Guy!" the guard said with a smile.

Amazing Rope Guy continued frowning. "How come I always get spaghetti?" he demanded. "No one else gets spaghetti every day."

The guard seemed surprised by this. "Oh, would you prefer something else?"

Amazing Rope Guy looked down at the spaghetti again then wrinkled his nose. "Yes, I would, spaghetti every day for months is a bit boring."

"How about linguine?" the guard asked. "Or we could switch to some nice angel hair pasta."

"How about if we stay away from pasta?" Amazing Rope Guy suggested.

The guard scratched his chin as he thought. "How about some Twizzlers Pull n Peel?"

"Why would I want that for a meal?"

"Hey, Twizzlers are fun!" the guard protested.

Amazing Rope Guy didn't seem impressed.

"Fine then, how about some shoe-string french fries?"

"I think I'm beginning to see a pattern here..."

"I think you're just fussy." the guard stated. "We go out of our way to make everyone feel comfortable with who they are so we serve themed meals, but you don't like yours!"

Rubbing the bridge of his nose, Amazing Rope Guy said. "Just because my thing is ropes doesn't mean I like all my food to look like rope. Can't I just have a salad like Lady Redundant Woman? That looked good."

The guard couldn't seem to wrap his mind around this. "But a salad isn't stringy or ropey at all!"

"It doesn't need to be." Amazing Rope Guy answered grumpily. "Or at least it shouldn't be."

"Er...okay then, I guess I can get you one if that's what you really want..."

"How come I didn't get a gingerbread man?" Amazing Rope Guy asked looking down at the tray.

The guard shrugged. "Must have run out."

"That's not fair! Everyone else got one! Lady Redundant Woman got three!"

"Amazing Rope Guy, knock it off, you're holding up the lunch cart!" Chuck the Evil Sandwich Making Guy called out. "I'm hungry, just eat the spaghetti and let him do his job! It's not that big of a deal!"

Amazing Rope Guy held out the tray to the guard. "No, I won't. It wouldn't kill the jail to give me something different for a change and a cookie."

"Fine, I'll see what I can do." the guard answered.

The guard took away the tray then went on to the next cell.

"Here's a really great sandwich for you today, Chuck!" the guard could be heard saying.

"Psst, Amazing Rope Guy!" came a whisper.

Amazing Rope Guy looked up and saw several of the other villains regarding him in curiosity. Ms. Question, who had the cell across from him, had a brow raised and her arms crossed.

"Why are you always so grumpy at Christmas?" she asked.

Amazing Rope Guy crossed his arms as well. "I am not. I just felt like something different today, that's all."

"No way, Amazing Noodle Guy!" Whammer called loudly. "You're always wham at Christmas! You need some cheering up!"

"There's nothing wrong with me, I'm not grouchy, grumpy, or in any way bad-tempered around Christmas!"

"That's my line!" Lady Redundant Woman piped up, annoyed. "No stealing my schtick! And you are by the way."

Amazing Rope Guy's brow furrowed as he gave them a gloomy look.

Lady Redundant Woman looked down at her three cookies and picked one up. "Here pass, toss and hand this down to sulky."

The gingerbread man was passed down the line of cells until it reached Amazing Rope Guy's cell and the Butcher held it through the bars with a large grin.

"Merry Christmas, here's yer cookie." he said.

Amazing Rope Guy took the cookie a bit reluctantly feeling a little bit silly about the fuss he'd made. "It's not Christmas yet." was all he could think to say.

"Well, it will be in two days!" an over-enthused Mr. Big announced. "My chocolate advent calender has been helping me keep count!"

Amazing Rope Guy curled up on his lumpy, bent up mattress and took a bite of the cookie.

"We have the best Christmas party planned!" Chuck put in, "I don't know why you didn't want to help us with it."

"Did it ever occur to you that maybe I'm Jewish?" Amazing Rope Guy stated irritably. "And that Christmas just really isn't my thing?"

"Yer not Jewish, yer just grouchy." Butcher said. "'sides, even the Jewish have their Harmonica holiday this time of year so everyone is in the spirit. You should cheer up and have some fun."

Amazing Rope Guy rolled his eyes and gave a heavy sigh.

"Rabbit food's here!" the guard announced, walking back down the hallway.

He held out a new tray and Amazing Rope Guy got up to take it. The villain stared at his salad a moment then narrowed his eyes.

"You put spaghetti noodles on top of the lettuce!"

The guard held up his hands defensively. "Lots of people put noodles in their salad!"

"Ugh, whatever." Amazing Rope Guy muttered, turning away.

Curling back up on his bed, he picked off the noodles and began munching on his salad not realizing how much he'd missed eating something with a bit of colour. After spending months of eating nothing but beige it was refreshing to eat something different.

"Yer eating green...did you notice that?" Butcher asked in concern. "I don't see any meat in there..."

"It's a salad, it's doesn't have to have meat in it or a carcass or a corpse of any kind." Lady Redundant Woman stated. "Did you forget that I'm vegetarian? I don't eat meat and I'm very happy with that."

Butcher gave an obvious shudder. "No, I didn't forgot, I just tried to that's all. It's creepy. It's not right. You're like one of them leaf-eating things in magazines. Jee-raffs."

"A Giraffe?" Whammer jumped in. "Whammer loves Giraffes! With their long legs and little spots they're so wham!"

"Don't call me a giraffe you meaty strange, oddball, weirdo!"

"Hey! No need to be offenasive!" Butcher said, holding up his hands in defeat. "I didn't mean it like that!"

"Oh, really?" Lady Redundant Woman snapped. "And what exactly did you mean?"

As the villains argued back and forth, Amazing Rope Guy leaned back on his cot trying to get comfortable. He wasn't sure why he always felt so wound up and agitated this time of year but it happened every time. He supposed he never really liked holidays to begin with and this was the mother load of them with all of the lights, decorations, music and panic everywhere. Not understanding what the big deal about Christmas was, he gave a sigh just wanting it to be over and for everything to go back to normal. The other villains didn't even commit crimes this time of year because they were too busy celebrating. In his opinion that would be the perfect time to strike, Word Girl wouldn't be expecting it.

His mind turning, he rolled over, facing the window and closed his eyes. That would definitely make Christmas a lot more tolerable if he were able to commit a successful crime. He could only imagine the shocked look on Word Girls face when she read the paper on the 26th and found out he was out helping himself to the city while she opened her presents from santa. His mouth curled up into a smirk.

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><p>Amazing Rope Guy awoke several hours later cold and with a headache. He hadn't meant to fall asleep that early and now regretted it as it had messed up his sleeping pattern for the night. Rubbing at his temples, trying to ease the headache away he glanced at his watch and frowned. It was two in the morning and everyone else was sound asleep in the cells near him and would be for hours yet. There was no light to read by and already he was growing bored. In the back of his mind he realized it was now Christmas Eve but didn't put too much thought on it.<p>

Standing up, he stretched the kink out of his back and looked at the bars of his cell. Everyone was asleep so he supposed if he did want to escape to start his plan, now would be a good time to do it. He'd only ever escaped from jail once before so he wasn't exactly sure how to go about it this time. He never actually succeeded in committing many crimes so usually they just kept him in jail for three days then let him out again on the equivalent of a timeout. It was humiliating but at least he was getting a lot of practice with his ropes each time he was let out.

Amazing Rope Guy paused for a second as a thought occurred to him then he counted on his fingers. Frowning, he leaned against the bars and squinted into the hallway for the night watchman. Seeing him sitting on a stool a few cells away he called for him.

"Psst, hey, guard!"

The guard jumped slightly almost falling out of his chair, having been dozing and glanced around in confusion.

"Guard!" Amazing Rope Guy whispered, trying not to wake the others. "Come here!"

The guard squinted in Amazing Rope Guy's direction for moment trying to see who it was then got up and approached the cell.

"What are you doing awake at this hour?" the guard stated. "You should be sleeping."

"I couldn't sleep." Amazing Rope Guy replied. "Now, I have a question for you. How long was my sentence, this time?"

The guard gave him a strange look. "The usual three days, why?"

"Then why have I been here four days? Five counting today."

"Oh," the guard said. "Well, the warden said you'd be wanting to stay with the others for Christmas, especially since they planned that big Christmas party. You're in and out of here so often anyway, he figured you might as well spend Christmas with your friends. There's no point in you spending it alone."

Amazing Rope Guy frowned at him. "I don't want to stay here for Christmas, I want to be released."

The guard seemed completely surprised by this. "What? Not stay for Christmas? But you'll be all by yourself!"

"That's my choice. Amazing Rope Guy has his OWN plans for Christmas for once!"

"Oh, are you going home to visit your parents?"

Amazing Rope Guy stared at him a moment then gave a slight cough. "Yeah, something like that."

"Well, as long as you're not by yourself tomorrow, I suppose I don't feel bad about letting you out." the guard said. "As long as you're happy that's all that matters."

"Oh, I'll be very happy."

The guard took out his key ring then slowly opened the cell door. As Amazing Rope Guy marched past him proud as can be, the guard had a strange feeling about this. He walked the villain out of the prison like he'd done dozens of times before then watched as he literately ran off into the night. Wiping his brow, he knew he'd have to tell the warden about this in the morning which would result in him probably eating his hat.

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><p>Amazing Rope Guy couldn't believe that was so easy. He knew this had to be a sign he was meant to be the Amazing Christmas Bandit and had to make sure everyone knew he was the best villain ever. He was tired of being made fun of and he knew from last time he couldn't just pretend to be one of the other villains to steal their glory, he had to earn the respect himself.<p>

Knowing the most logical place he should hit first would be the bank, Amazing Rope Guy wondered how he would get in and out without tripping any of the alarms. Whenever anyone opened the bank-safe the alarms immediately went off so he needed to find a way to get in without opening it or else he'd be found out. He pondered for a moment then decided his best bet would be to take a look through Doctor Two-Brains lab to see if there was anything he could borrow for the heist that would get him inside. The scientist was brilliant at being sneaky after all so he was sure he wouldn't mind if he borrowed something. It was Christmas after all.

One very long, awkward bus ride later, where he was the only person aboard, he arrived near Doctor Two-Brains hideout. He shivered as he walked down the street towards the hideout hoping the lair would be warm. When he arrived, he tried the entrance but it was locked tight, the henchmen obviously not there. Sighing, he walked back up the steps and promptly slipped on a patch of ice.

Limbs flailing, he hit the pavement hard and lay for a moment stunned but otherwise unharmed. Glowering, at his usual bad luck, he slowly sat up and rubbed at his backside irritably hoping he wouldn't bruise. Getting up, he eyed the ice warily and edged around it then looked at the outside of the hideout. Seeing a window, he approached and tested it, pleased when he found it unlocked. He slid the window open fully, glad Doctor Two-Brains henchmen didn't think to check the window. Slipping himself inside easily because of his thin frame, he shut the window then squinted into the darkness. He couldn't see a thing and wasn't really familiar enough with the Doctors lab to know where the light switch was.

Stumbling slightly, he hit the light on his watch trying to get a small amount of light. It lit up a very tiny area around him for about five seconds then went out again. Hitting it again, he moved a few steps looking along the wall. It was a slow process but by hitting it over and over again, he eventually was able to find a light switch.

Now that he able to see, Amazing Rope Guy gazed around the surprisingly neat lair, not sure where to begin. He could see several large inventions that looked like some sort of laser or gun probably related to cheese of some sort and also quite a few small bits of machinery in a box near a worktable. Approaching, he read the label on the large inventions, seeing they either shot cheese or turned objects into cheese, nothing that interested him. Knowing Doctor Two-Brains also created other things now and then for his heists, Amazing Rope Guy approached the worktable.

Sitting down beside the box of machinery, he began digging through it, looking for something good. Most of the inventions weren't finished yet and several of them couldn't be used for anything crime-related but a few had potential. Setting aside the ones to consider, he went through the whole box then looked at his choices thoughtfully.

There was a teleportation watch, a gun which melted through anything it shot, a grappling hook and a super-shovel for digging under buildings.

He thought about it a moment wondering which of these would be the best to try. He was never really one for physical labour so that cut out the shovel and he considered the grappling hook. It went along with his rope theme so he'd keep that for backup purposes and attached that around his waist for later. He picked up the melting ray and turned it over in his hand smiling suddenly. He wouldn't have to use a door, he could just melt his way right through the bank to get what he wanted!

In his enthusiasm, he grasped the trigger a bit too tightly and with a loud 'zing' and flash of blue light, he melted the worktable in front of him. Staring at the puddle of molten metal just inches from where he sat with wide eyes, Amazing Rope Guy gave the gun another glance. With his luck, he could now picture this heist going horribly, painfully wrong if he used this gun. He was rather attached to all of his limbs so he very carefully set the gun down. Turning his attention to the teleportation watch he picked it up.

It didn't really look like it was fully finished as there wasn't any casing on it but all the parts looked like they were in place. Wondering if this was something Doctor Two-Brains was planning on using himself on his next heist, Amazing Rope Guy wondered if it worked. If it did, it would be even better than the melting ray-gun as he would leave no evidence he'd been there until they opened the safe.

Pressing the on button, the watch lit up, displaying a small screen. Amazing Rope Guy squinted at it, reading what it said.

"Coordinates? What's that mean?" he asked with a frown. "Word Girl probably knows but I'm trying to keep her away until at least after Christmas..."

He stared at the spots he was supposed to type something in and thought. "Could it be asking the address of where I want it to take me? That would make sense."

He pondered a moment trying to remember what the address of the bank was then began typing it in and he wrapped it around his wrist.

"4512 13th street 1st floor, so 4512131."

Once it was entered, he pressed the teleport button anxiously. The watch let out a crackle and the numbers on the screen seemed to blur together as the device tried to make sense of the coordinates. Unable to find what it was looking for it gave another crack, then a pop. Amazing Rope Guy stared at the watch in surprise, then realized something wasn't going quite right. The watch felt red-hot against his wrist and he winced in pain. The watch pulsed spasmodically then began to crack, steam rising out of the holes rapidly.

He gasped as the watch seemed to expand, the cracks spidering everywhere. The watch was glowing and blinking through several shades of red, blue and yellow, loud hissing of steam filling the air. It gave one final pulse then the glass proceeded to explode, showering him in debris as he was blinded by a bright light being released. The light seemed to pull at his skin uncomfortably for a moment almost feeling like a physical presence and lasted much longer than an explosion should have. With a last great flash, it retreated inwards with a deafening crack of thunder that left his ears ringing.

Amazing Rope Guy quickly pulled the watch off and threw it away from himself where it landed in a snowbank. There was a seconds hesitation. Wait, why was there snow inside Doctor Two-Brains hideout? He paused and very, very slowly looked up. His mouth promptly dropped open. He was no longer inside Doctor Two Brains lair, in fact he was no longer in Fair City at all. He was in the middle of a street of the smallest town he'd ever seen in his life. There was only a couple dozen buildings in the entire town and there was so much snow everywhere, it looked like a winter wonderland. Amazing Rope Guy had never been outside of the city before so it was strange to see such a tiny town and so much snow. Usually all the snow was plowed away in the city so there was never more than slush or the occasional snow-banks so he found himself a little awestruck.

Scrambling back to the watch, he picked it up and turned it over to look at it. All the glass was broken out of it and as he touched one of the buttons, it sparked, causing him to drop it in alarm.

"I broke it...Ohhhhh. Two Brains is going to kill me!" he stated in despair. "Great, how am I going to get home? I wonder if one of the other villains will buy me a bus ticket if I can find a phone?"

Shivering, he picked up the broken teleportation watch and tied it around his wrist again, knowing he had to eventually return it to Two Brains. Hugging his arms around himself he gazed down the street, wondering where he should go. It was still very dark out and there wasn't a light on in any of the houses so he knew he couldn't just go knocking on doors. In his costume they'd likely call the police.

Amazing Rope Guy gazed up and down the streets again and then realized something very surprising and strange. This town didn't have a police station. It had a town hall, grocery store, a bakery and several other stores but no police or jail! A sense of awe seemed to come over him and he looked around and around, sure he'd just missed them. When he saw the town indeed didn't have a police station or jail, a new thought occurred to him. Who was protecting this town from criminals? How were they kept in line when they broke the law?

Walking up the street slowly, he couldn't help but consider what Fair City would be like without any jails, police or guards. That's when he found himself standing in front of the town bank. He stopped and looked up at it in silence, for once feeling a sense of confidence. No one was here to stop him. Even if they did see him, what could they do about it? Amazing Rope Guy gave a smile. Even if this wasn't his city, it would still count as a crime if he could pull it off and he couldn't see any reason why he couldn't.

They probably didn't even have bank alarms if they didn't think they needed police. Inspecting the outside of the building, he raised an eyebrow at the giant pig-snout on the front but dismissed it as some sort of small-town joke. The building looked easy enough to scale with his ropes so he shouldn't have to much trouble to actually get inside.

Amazing Rope Guy looked down at his watch and saw it was only four thirty in the morning so if he hurried he'd be in and out before anyone woke up. Wondering where he could find some rope in this town he glanced around. Not really wanting to search around all through the town, he looked down at the grappling hook attached to his waist. Technically it was rope but he'd never used a grappling hook before but he supposed he could give it a try.

Removing it from it's holder, he pointed it towards the roof and aimed carefully. Pressing the trigger, the rope shot up and attached itself to the flagpole on the roof.

"Yes!" Amazing Rope Guy yelled, pumping his fist triumphantly.

Grabbing a hold of the rope, he expertly began to climb, excited about the heist he was about to pull off. He was about halfway up when he realized the grappling gun was making a beeping sound and looked down at the belt uncertainly. He climbed another step but the rope suddenly started to retract the loose rope from below him and the rope above him started being pulled upward as it was still attached to the flagpole. His torso got tangled in the rope in the process and in only a moment he was stuck fast, halfway up the side of the building.

"Ah, crap."

The rope was tight against him and he shifted slightly, causing himself to rock back and forth. He sighed heavily and looked down. At least he was only about eight feet off the ground, it wouldn't hurt too badly if he fell.

"Hello, there!" a bright cheery voice called from below.

Amazing Rope Guy looked down and saw a strongly built man wearing all blue, donning a blue hat as well. He was smiling up at him, head cocked, looking curious.

"What are you doing?"

Amazing Rope Guy stared back at him then up towards the roof of the bank a bit nervously. "Er...climbing?" he said innocently.

"That's dangerous, you shouldn't do that, you could fall!" the man gently scolded. "There's plenty of other games and sports that are much safer."

Amazing Rope Guy just stared at him.

"You're looking a bit tangled up, do you need help?"

"...yes."

The man smiled wider, his eyes crinkling at the corners. Reaching up, the man grabbed onto part of the rope then gave it a hard tug, pulling it and Amazing Rope Guy down. Amazing Rope Guy flailed in panic as he fell expecting to hit the ground painfully and was surprised when the man caught him. He was set gently on his feet and the man stood hands on hips, happy smile in place.

"I don't believe I know you." he said. "My name is Sportacus, I'm the town hero."

Amazing Rope Guy shifted slightly, feeling awkward and averted his gaze. "I'm Amazing Rope Guy."

Sportacus now seemed genuinely interested and looked the others costume up and down. "Amazing Rope Guy? Are you a hero too? Or perhaps a sidekick?"

"...no."

"Then why do you go by that name and wear a costume?" Sportacus asked.

Amazing Rope Guy felt a tiny surge of pride surface and puffed out his chest. "Because I'm a villain, the best there is!" he answered.

Sportacus seemed surprised by this and regarded the man in front of him thoughtfully. "It's a bit early in the day to be causing mischief, isn't it? Are you scheming anything?"

"You're asking me?"

"Yes."

"Er, no?"

Sportacus clapped him on the back. "Well, good, it's Christmas so I didn't think you'd be planning anything. Welcome to town, I hope you like it here. And be sure to introduce yourself when the children get up, they'll be happy to meet you."

Amazing Rope Guy was confused. Why was the town hero not angered or annoyed by his presence and why would children want to meet him? This was really strange.

"I'm not staying." he stated. "I ended up here by accident. I'll be leaving shortly."

"Oh, well, that's too bad, we don't get too many new faces around here. It would have been nice to show you a Lazytown Christmas."

"Lazytown? Is that where I am? Where's that?"

"You're lost?" Sportacus asked doing a few push-ups in front of him.

"No, I just don't know where I am."

"That sounds like lost to me. Even a villain needs help now and then. Our town villain Robbie needs help all the time, it's alright."

"It's fine, once this town is open, I'll be calling someone in my city who will hopefully get me a ticket home from wherever this is."

"But it's Christmas Eve!"

"Yeah?"

"The buses won't be running in Lazytown until after New Years!"

Amazing Rope Guy's eyes widened. "What? Why?"

"It's such a small town that every Christmas the buses stop and even when they do run, they only go outside of town once a week. We don't really need them during the holidays."

Amazing Rope Guy crossed his arms and kicked at a pile of snow. "That's just great. I'm stranded here. I always have rotten luck."

Sportacus looked concerned. "Do you need to get to your family's for Christmas?"

"No."

"Are you planning on spending Christmas with your friends then or maybe your neighbours?"

"Well, no..."

"Are you planning on spending Christmas alone?"

"I suppose, yeah. Why?"

"Then why do you need to go back in such a hurry? If you're stranded here for a couple days, you might as well enjoy Christmas with us."

Amazing Rope Guy hrrumphed and looked away not wanting to deal with Christmas at the moment. "I'm going to look around the town." he said.

As he turned to walk away, Sportacus called after him. "Wait, you forgot your rope gun!"

Quickly bending down to scoop up the rope and gun, he then made a hasty retreat, only glancing back once at the strange blue hero. He saw the man flipping off through the snow like a professional acrobat not once making a mistake.

It was now after five and Amazing Rope Guy was positively frozen. His body suit wasn't exactly insulated so he felt like one giant icicle. He wound the rope back into the grappling gun as he walked, making note that it was timed so he didn't actually need to climb, it would pull him up. That would be useful later on.

A heavenly smell making him more alert, he turned to find it's source, quickly zeroing in on the bakery. Approaching, he pressed his nose against the window and looked inside. He could see the baker just bringing out all of the fresh baked goods and laying them on the cooling racks where customers would be able to see them. Seeing a tall dark-haired man inside looking at the pastries, he wondered if they were open yet. Digging inside his pocket for a moment to see what he could come up with, he found a five and a bit of change.

Pleased he wasn't completely broke, he decided about seeing if he could buy himself some breakfast. He tried the door and found it unlocked so he walked in, a little bell announcing his entrance. Both the baker and the man glanced over at him then did a double-take at his costume. The man gave a shrug and went back to donut shopping but the baker just gaped at him dumbly.

Feeling rather awkward, Amazing Rope Guy approached the display case to see what they had. Whole wheat bread, whole wheat buns, whole wheat kaisers, he couldn't see any white bread at all.

"Why is everything whole wheat?" he asked.

"The whole town is on a health kick. Revolting, isn't is? It's all Sportaflop's fault." the man stated, being handed his purchases. "Everybody's so noisy and healthy now, it's horrible. It never used to be like this."

"It can't be that much of a kick, they still sell pastries here."

"Yes, ONLY here and that's because I pitched a fit and the bakery really doesn't want to lose my business considering how much of this stuff I eat. You can still get wrapped candies at the grocery store but everything else is gone now."

"That's weird." Amazing Rope Guy stated trying to decide what he wanted. "Can I get one of those cinnamon buns?"

"Please." the baker corrected him holding her hands on her hips.

"Are you kidding me?" Amazing Rope Guy asked, dumbfounded.

The man beside him smiled. "Nope, Lazytown's like that. Sportacus has been forcing pleases and thank yous down everyone's throat."

"Fine. Please?"

The baker handed one over to him with a napkin as she took his five with another strange look. As he waited for his change the man next to him touched the sleeve of his jumpsuit curiously then pulled at it slightly.

"What are you doing?" Amazing Rope Guy asked.

"Your costume, I was just looking at it. I was trying to see if it was boughten or custom made."

"Custom. You can't have a boughten costume if you're a villain, that's just lame."

The mans eyes widened. "You're a villain? From another town?"

"Yes, I'm Amazing Rope Guy, I'm the best there is."

"Hey, come sit down with me for a second." the man said, tugging him over to a table in the far corner of the bakery.

When they were both seated, Amazing Rope Guy gave the other man an odd look, not sure what he wanted exactly.

"My names Robbie Rotten, I'm the villain of Lazytown." the man introduced himself, pointing at himself with a flourish. "I've been trying forever to get rid of Sportacus since he ruined nice, quiet Lazytown. I haven't been able to do it so far. Lazytown has never had more than one villain before, I think we should team up for something big, something that will make Sportacus want to leave Lazytown FOREVER!"

Amazing Rope Guy took a bite of his cinnamon bun. "Why would I do that? He's never bothered me."

Robbie's brow furrowed. "You're a villain! Wreak havoc with me, Christmas is Sportacus' favourite holiday and I really want to ruin it for him!"

Amazing Rope Guy looked up from his food. "Ruin Christmas? As in no happy singing, no lights, no big meals and no decorations?"

"I want to completely ruin it! They never invite me anyway! I tried to last year but it didn't go so well. It would serve them right for following Mr. flippity flippity anyway."

Amazing Rope Guy had to admit he was intrigued. "Okay, I'm listening."

"I'm not really sure how to do it but I want to completely devastate everyone in town by taking away Christmas, which will cause Sportacus to go nuts from trying to help them all. Being overcome by pleas for help he'll flee town FOREVER!"

Amazing Rope Guy finished off his cinnamon bun and raised an eyebrow. "Have you seen the movie 'The Grinch who stole Christmas' by any chance?"

Robbie thought hard a moment. "Yes?"

"You're reminding me of it. Why don't we do that? Steal the presents? Our ending will be much better though."

"Take away all the presents and stuff? Leave them with nothing?" Robbie asked, starting to grin.

"Why not? If that Sportacus loves Christmas that much, then he'll have a heart attack when he wakes up and the town has been ransacked!"

Robbie clapped his hands together excitedly. "I knew we were meant to work together! Come on, let's go to my lair and make some plans!"

As they both stood up, the baker eyed them suspiciously having heard the last thing Robbie said. "You two boys better not be planning any trouble or I'll be sure to tell Sportacus on you!"

"Who me? Trouble? NEVER!" Robbie declared, seemingly offended. "And at Christmas too, how dare you! I've always been a perfect citizen!"

The baker rolled her eyes, everyone in town knowing Robbie's strange ways and odd moods. "Just keep your nose clean." she advised. "You, here's your change."

As they left the bakery, Robbie pulled him down the street hurriedly. Amazing Rope Guy was quite shocked however when they veered off the main road and started cutting across an open plain, covered entirely in snow. There was a small path made from footprints which they followed and after a minute or two they came to a large billboard with a picture of a cow on it. Robbie motioned for him to follow and they walked behind the billboard to a large pipe hatch sticking out of the ground.

"Your lair's underground?" Amazing Rope Guy asked incredulously.

"Of course, it's more secret that way."

Robbie opened the hatch with a groan of effort then crawled inside and began his decent into the pipe. Amazing Rope Guy followed a little cautiously, never having been in an underground lair before. After the initial ladder, the pipe went smooth and you had to slide the rest of the way and as he zoomed down through the pipe, he hoped there wasn't anything sharp at the bottom.

Amazing Rope Guy landed on top of Robbie who he himself had landed on top of some sort of fluffy orange chair. He gave Robbie an apologetic look then carefully slid off of him.

His first impression of the lair was that it was dark and dreary and sort of drippy. The steaming metal pipes and grating surrounded the area gave it a intimidating look, making it seem like some sort of factory instead of a hideout. There were inventions and bits of machinery strewn all throughout the lair, covering almost every surface like a child had thrown some sort of tantrum and hadn't cleaned up. A large purple Christmas tree sat in the corner, no gifts underneath, just decorated and sitting there by itself lonely and seemingly forgotten. Curious, Amazing Rope Guy looked over at Robbie.

"Are you an inventor?"

Robbie sort of waved his hand dismissively. "Yeah, I dabble. I have to make my own devices to defeat Sportacus so sorry for the mess."

"Is there any way you could fix this?" Amazing Rope Guy asked, holding out his wrist with the broken teleportation watch.

"A watch?"

"It teleports, that's how I ended up here and now I'm stuck because it's broken."

Now interested, Robbie removed the watch and then looked it over carefully. "I've never seen something like this before. I can take a look at it but I'm not making any promises."

Amazing Rope Guy nodded relieved he at least had a chance to leave sooner.

"So, I'll show you the map of lazytown and we can decide which houses we're going to hit first and how."

Robbie pulled off his winter coat, hat and gloves and tossed them aside, eager to begin planning. Amazing Rope Guy stared at the mans strange attire, wondering if that was his villain costume. Robbie was wearing a purple and burgundy striped pant-suit with the pants pulled up much too high, almost underneath his armpits with the smallest possible vest barely covering his chest. His shoes were black and white like the old fashioned spats men wore in the twenties and his hair had so much gel in it, it looked practically solid. Although his own costume was blue and yellow nylon/spandex Amazing Rope Guy still considered Robbie's much stranger.

Robbie shoved the loose machinery and tools off of his worktable creating a loud clatter then quickly spread a large sheet of paper open. Amazing Rope Guy approached and looked over his shoulder.

Every building in the town was crudely sketched out, including the streets and park. He had the names of each building written on them but what Amazing Rope Guy found interesting were the names written on the houses. The names Twiggy, Stinky, Pinky, Poodle and Trouble stuck out to him the most and he raised a brow wondering what that was about.

"Okay, here's the town." Robbie said, proudly. "There's six houses, shops, the mayors office and other buildings. We have to figure out what we're hitting first."

Amazing Rope Guy studied the map thoughtfully. He was terrible at being a villain but he did have some experience in this field so he grabbed a pencil and began numbering the houses.

"We should work from the outside in. It'll be faster that way."

Robbie hurriedly nodded. "That makes sense."

"What can we use to carry everything? Do you have a car? Or a truck?"

Robbie tapped his chin in thought. "I have a giant tractor we can use." he offered.

"Well, I suppose that might work, if we can find a sled or something to attach to it."

"I'm sure I can come up with something but when should we do it? Sneak in while they're eating Christmas dinner? That would be magnificent!"

Amazing Rope Guy's eyes widened. "No! Do you want to get caught! I get caught enough on my own! We should do it when they're sleeping, sometime after midnight."

That thought hadn't occurred to Robbie. He was awake all night anyway so it made sense to steal the gifts then. He would sleep all day through the noise and mayhem then wake to ruin Christmas for Sportaflake and the little noisemakers!

Thinking of sleep made Robbie yawn and he gave his orange fluffy chair a longing look.

"Why do you hate Lazytown anyway? Why not just leave? There's bigger cities you could be in."

Robbie paused mid-yawn. "Hate Lazytown? Who said I hate it? It's my home. I hate noise and children and stupid blue elves! I'm the laziest guy in town but they just can't seem to understand that and won't leave me alone. It's horrible! When I can, I sleep all day long and that's the way I like it!"

Amazing Rope Guy looked up from the map. "If you're the laziest man in town then why were you up so early?"

Robbie gave him a smirk. "I haven't been to bed yet. Night is the only time I can concentrate because it's quiet so I sleep during the day."

"Oh."

"Why are you up this early? You're not one of those early-bird risers, are you?"

"No. I kind of took a really long nap yesterday after supper and have been up ever since."

Robbie gave him a grin. "I knew we were meant to be! Best partnership ever! Our laziness will be legendary in Lazytown once we destroy Christmas!"

Amazing Rope Guy wasn't sure whether to be offended or not but didn't comment. Reaching out and taking one of Robbie' weird, frosted cupcakes, he watched as the other man sketched out a sleigh. He noticed this drawing was a lot better than the map as it was a technical drawing of how he was going to put it together and what parts were needed. As he munched on the cupcake, he watched in fascination as the drawing seemed to come together.

"Huh, it looks like a santa sleigh."

"Well, it is Christmas and don't get crumbs on my paper."

"How about side racks?" Amazing Rope Guy suggested. "Just in case things fall off?"

Robbie held up a finger. "Good idea."

Modifying the drawing slightly so it now had side racks, Robbie set down the pencil. "There, now when I wake up, I'll build it. I'm going to bed."

"Now?"

"Well, I'm certainly not going to stay awake all day! I sleep in my chair but there's a bed somewhere in the other room, I've kind of forgotten where it is. You're welcome to sleep there if you want. You'll have to look for it though."

Robbie didn't look like he cared either way and flopped down on his chair with a loud sigh of satisfaction. Amazing Rope Guy licked the last of the icing from his fingers and watched in disbelief as Robbie started snoring almost immediately. At first he thought he was faking but longer it went on, the more surprising it became.

Amazing Rope Guy looked one way then the other not exactly sure what to do with himself. He wasn't tired yet and he didn't feel safe digging around in the lair as a lot of the inventions looked quite menacing. If they didn't maim him horribly then he was bound to kill himself on the loose bits of machinery and metal laying about everywhere. He had terrible luck after all.

Deciding he'd prefer to look around town a bit now that it was later, he glanced towards the pipe and shivered. Figuring Robbie wouldn't mind seeing as he was asleep, he grabbed his coat, hat and gloves. Slipping them on, he knew the purple must clash horribly with his costume but he didn't care. Satisfied, he grabbed the ladder to the pipe and began climbing. The ladder went up to the pipe itself then stopped and he realized he was supposed to shimmy up the rest of the way. Glad he was thinly built so he had some manoeuvring room, he began his slow, careful ascent.

He couldn't imagine having to do this several times a day, no wonder Robbie didn't have any body fat on him! When he finally saw the top, he paused to try to figure out how to open it. Seeing the handle, he turned it he pushed with all his might. The top opened but Amazing Rope Guy's feet slipped and he fell down a metre or so, his legs ending up twisting above his head and his back wedging against the other side of the pipe. He took a deep breath and winced.

"...ow."

Carefully disentangling himself, he continued up the pipe glad he was flexible. When he reached the top, he grabbed the outside of the pipe and hoisted himself out. When he was safe on solid ground he closed the pipes entrance and let out a sigh of relief. When he turned around he almost bumped into Sportacus. He jumped back startled and tried to block the lairs entrance with his body

"Hello, again." Sportacus greeted. "Everything alright?"

"Yes, why shouldn't it be?"

"Well, you were in trouble just a moment ago, I wanted to make sure you weren't hurt."

Amazing Rope Guy gaped at him. "How would you know that?"

Sportacus smiled at him and pointed at a crystal on the front of his vest. "Whenever anyone is in danger, my crystal flashes and beeps and I know they're in danger."

"I'm fine, nothing's wrong."

Sportacus noticed how he was standing in front of the pipe and tried to look around him curiously. Amazing Rope Guy instantly stepped into his field of vision so he couldn't see.

"What are you doing?" Sportacus asked.

"Nothing, just looking around. There's an old rotted pipe here, better not go near it, I think it's an old sewage pipe. Raw sewage can be dangerous, better tell everyone to stay clear of this field."

Sportacus couldn't help but give Amazing Rope Guy a warm smile. He was trying to protect Robbie which endeared him to the elf instantly. Not many people stuck up for Robbie so he figured it was because the two of them were villains that he felt he had to hide the others home. It as too bad he didn't know that everyone already knew where Robbie lived.

"Sure thing." he said to the villain. "You should come meet everyone, the children are playing in the park. It's a lot of fun."

"Uh, no thanks. I'm going for a walk." Amazing Rope Guy said, giving the hero an odd look.

Sportacus seemed surprised by this. "You are? Good for you! I'll join you!"

"Uh..."

"Come on, I'll show you around town!" Sportacus cried excitedly, grabbing him by the arm.

Much against his will, Amazing Rope Guy was pulled a lot faster than he would have liked across the field and back into town. As Sportacus dragged him from one spot to another at a fast run telling him the street name, what the buildings were and who lived or worked there. After several minutes of constant running, Amazing Rope Guy thought he was going to die. When they finally stopped at the park and Sportacus released his arm, Amazing Rope Guy was panting hard, glaring at the hero like his gaze would shrivel him.

"W-water!" he gasped out. "Going to die!"

Sportacus stared at him in concern then looked upwards. "WATER!" he called loudly.

Instantly a bottle of water fell from the air and landed in his hand. He handed it to Amazing Rope Guy who downed half of it in one gulp then looked at Sportacus angrily.

"I said I wanted to go for a walk, not an Olympic race!"

"Oh!" said Sportacus a bit sheepishly. "Why didn't you tell me we were going too fast?"

"I did! Six times, but you couldn't hear me because we were going so fast!"

"I'm sorry, but at least you had a good workout."

Amazing Rope Guy took another swig of the water then looked at it a bit suspiciously.

"How did you do that with the water?"

"It came from my airship." Sportacus said pointing upwards. "It's where I live, everything is voice-commanded."

Amazing Rope Guy looked up and saw a huge, blue air-blimp and felt his mouth drop open. "You live in the sky?"

"Yup!" Sportacus said proudly.

He said nothing more, simply staring at the monstrosity in the sky. The children who had been having a snowball ball fight, saw them and came over curiously.

"Hi, Sportacus!" a little girl called, who had pink hair and was also completely dressed in pink.

"Hi, hi, hiiii!" one little energetic blond boy called happily.

"Is that him, Sportacus?" asked a little black boy with gizmos and gadgetry all over himself. "Is that the new villain you were telling us about?"

Sportacus gave them a nod. "Yes, Pixel, this is Amazing Rope Guy. He'll be staying here for a bit."

"That's a weird name." A small boy wearing all yellow commented. "What's so amazing about him?"

"Stingy, that's rude!" Sportacus admonished.

"Are you going to cause trouble like Robbie?" the pink girl asked.

Amazing Rope Guy didn't answer which caused her to frown.

"We already have one villain, we don't need two." she pointed out. "Our town's very small."

"Sportacus, will you show me, how to build a snowman?" the little blond boy asked.

"Sure thing, Ziggy!" Sportacus said, walking several feet away with Ziggy to show him how to get it started.

A brown-haired girl with pig-tails crossed her arms as she stared at Amazing Rope Guy. "Those look like Robbie's clothes you're wearing. Are you two working together to get rid of Sportacus?"

Amazing Rope Guy just stared at her.

"Why are you wearing a mask?" the pink girl asked.

"Haven't you read comic books Stephanie? It's so no one knows his secret identity!" Pixel said in exasperation.

"Robbie causes us enough trouble! He's fun sure, but I wouldn't want double the trouble!"

The other children had to nod their agreement.

"He should find a new home, in another town!"

Amazing Rope Guy sighed and wondered if he should get into a whole conversation with small children about why he's not staying and why he's even here in the first place. Looking over at Sportacus he saw the hero had built the bottom of the snowman already and was helping with the middle ball.

He was shocked when he was suddenly hit in the head with a snowball. Looking back at the children he saw they were all armed with them and were looking at him determinedly.

"We already have one villain." Stephanie said, the others standing by her side.

"Go home!" Trixie yelled at him. "We don't need two Robbie's, go bother someone else!"

"Just go!" Stephanie urged. "Please go!"

He was hit with another snowball.

"Go on!" Stingy ordered. "This is my town and I don't want any new villains here!"

"Go back where you came from!" Pixel yelled. "Go!"

Being hit with tons of snowballs in the head and face, Amazing Rope Guy turned away and did the most logical thing and retreated. Fleeing back in the direction of Robbie's lair, he figured it would be safer to wait there for the day.

Sportacus spun around when he heard the yells and saw Amazing Rope Guy being pummelled with the snowballs and heard what the children were saying to him. Shocked speechless for a moment he saw Amazing Rope Guy take off at a run then turned to the children.

"What do you think you're doing?" he demanded in a tone they'd never heard him use with them before.

Instantly every child dropped their snowballs.

"We don't want another villain in our town!" Trixie said defensively. "He's going to play tricks on us!"

The others nodded their agreement.

Sportacus crossed his arms.

"Did it ever occur to you that he has feelings too?" he asked. "And that they can be hurt?"

The children exchanged glances.

"I just finished telling him what a nice bunch of kids you were and what a friendly town this was and I brought him over to introduce you. He doesn't know anyone here and is probably very lonely, especially since it's Christmas. Even if he is a villain, mean words can still hurt his feelings."

The children looked rather uneasy as none of this had occurred to them.

"Next time you see him, I want you to apologize, okay?"

The kids all nodded, already feeling bad about what they did.

"Good, now let's finish this snowman, shall we?"

* * *

><p>Halfway across town, Amazing Rope Guy stopped when he heard a shrill yelling of his name. Turning around, he saw an older lady with garish makeup and high-heals hurrying towards him.<p>

"Yoohooooo!" she called when she saw she had his attention. "Hi, there!"

Once she was standing in front of him, she stood straight and proud as she extended her hand.

"You're new in town, Mr. Amazing Rope Guy so I would like to welcome you! My name is Bessie Busybody and I work at the mayor's office!"

Taking the offered hand somewhat awkwardly, he shook it much to the woman's delight.

"Well, now! I see you're more polite than Robbie!"

"Ah-"

"I would like to invite you over for tea." Miss. Busybody stated, businesslike. "I'm the ears of this town and can tell you anything and everything! It would be a great opportunity for me to learn alll about you!"

She was smiling at him in a hungry fashion and he found himself backing up. "Er...no thank you..."

"Oh, no dear, I insist!"

Backing up further, he shook his head. "I, ah, have to be somewhere...maybe another time..."

As he retreated with as much dignity as possible, she called after him.

"In lazytown? Where would you have to go in lazytown?"

When he was a safe distance away, he slowed down to a walk then headed across the field to Robbie's.

* * *

><p>When back in the lair, Amazing Rope Guy took off the coat, hat and gloves and threw them where Robbie had left them. In a considerably worse mood than before, he glanced over at the still snoring Robbie. After that little scene in the park, he'd have no problem at all taking the presents from those little brats. He'd do it with pleasure.<p>

Deciding to sleep for a few hours so he'd have the energy for the heist, he decided to go seek out the bed that was mentioned. There was a door which led into a hallway so he decided to investigate. There were several other doors off of the hallway so he opened one and squinted into the darkness. Flipping on the light switch he found a bathroom so he turned off the light and tried the next room. He had success with the next one, as he found a bed barely visible at all, buried in machinery and other small inventions. Setting everything down on the floor, he was eventually left with a bare bed with oil stained sheets.

Frowning down at the soiled sheets, Amazing Rope Guy wondered if there was even a remote possibility of there being a clean set somewhere. He didn't really want to sleep in motor oil or whatever type of oil that was, so he began digging through drawers and opening the closet.

He was quite surprised to find clean sheets pushed at the very back of the closet and pulled out a set. Quickly changing the bed, he left the ruined sheets on the floor then crawled into bed, sore and tired from the run. Used to a deformed, lumpy jail cot, a normal mattress seemed like heaven and Amazing Rope Guy felt himself drifting off almost immediately.

* * *

><p>When Amazing Rope Guy woke up he had never felt more rested in his life. He stretched causing his joints to give a crack then gave a yawn. Sitting up, he glanced at his watch then did a double-take. It was already eight-o'clock? He'd slept that long?<p>

Getting up, he rubbed at his eyes, then wandered out of the room in search of Robbie. The chair was empty so he glanced around the inventing room. The dark-haired man was nowhere in sight. Frowning, he tapped his foot in thought.

"Robbie?" he called.

"Out here!" came the yelled reply from outside.

Looking up at the pipe, Amazing Rope Guy sighed and began climbing the ladder. Making sure not to slip this time, he made it to the top without incident and pulled himself out. He found Robbie standing beside a large tractor, the finished sleigh hooked behind it.

"You finished it already? I could have done something to help!"

"I just finished. You were still sleeping so I didn't want to bother you with the sleigh. Sleeps important, I should know."

Amazing Rope Guy still frowned. "I could have like tied on ropes or something..."

Robbie stared at him. "It doesn't need any ropes."

"Everything's always better with ropes." Amazing Rope Guy muttered, inspecting the sleigh.

He had to admit it was quite impressive considering it was built in a day. Robbie certainly seemed pleased with himself and patted its side affectionately.

"This is my best plan EVER, Sportacus will be heartbroken!"

"Our plan."

"Fine, fine, whatever, ours." Robbie acknowledged. "Also we don't have to wait until midnight, you know, to go ahead with it."

Amazing Rope Guy gave him a questioning look.

"Everyone goes to bed at eight oh eight exactly. The towns dead after that."

Both of Amazing Rope Guy's eyebrows rose in question. "What?"

"Yeah, I know. Another one of the elf's influences. That's why he needs to go. He's weird."

"We should wait later just to be safe."

Robbie was obviously already all set to go and gave him a 'look'. "I don't want to wait, I want to go now."

"We might get caught!"

"Everyone's sleeping!"

"The kids might still be awake because it's Christmas Eve!"

"They won't be, I know it! They're too much of goody-two shoes!"

Amazing Rope Guy crossed his arms.

"Wait, we should stop fighting. Sportaflops crystal will go off if we don't."

"Are you sure everyone will be asleep?"

Robbie nodded.

Amazing Rope Guy thought a moment then sighed. "Okay, let's do it then but if we get caught, it's your fault."

Robbie clapped his hands excitedly and jumped onto the tractor. "I have our costumes ready!"

"Costumes? I already have a costume."

"This one is for the Christmas heist!" Robbie said, holding up two costumes.

One was a red santa suit and the other was a green elf suit complete with pointed hat.

"I'm Santa, naturally."

Amazing Rope Guy stared at the costume in disbelief. "I'm not wearing that."

Robbie looked down at it. "Would you rather be a reindeer? I can get you some antlers if you like."

"No. Why do you want to change costumes at all?"

Robbie looked at him like he'd grown a second head. "If you're committing a crime that has to do with Christmas you dress up as something Christmasy or if it has to do with say hockey, you dress as a hockey player, you dress up for the occasion . It's the power of disguise. It's how it's done."

Amazing Rope Guy stared at the elf costume then let out an over exaggerated sigh. "You do realize it's pointless for me to put a costume over a costume right? It's going to look stupid."

Robbie simply shrugged.

Amazing Rope Guy had dressed as many strange things throughout his career so an elf actually wasn't that bad considering. After you've worn a dress and heals with an old lady wig, nothing looked too strange anymore.

"Fine." Amazing Rope Guy said, snatching it.

When both were in their appropriate costumes, Robbie turned on the tractor ignition and put it into gear.

"Okay, let's get started!"

As they drove their way through town to the first house, Amazing Rope Guy couldn't believe that all the lights were really turned out this early. It was crazy! They parked the tractor in front of the first house, the one that had been titled 'Stinky's house'. The house was the largest in the town and much more immaculate.

"I bet we can get a lot of good things out of here!" Amazing Rope Guy commented. "Look at it!"

Robbie sort of curled his nose up at the house then said. "This is a good one to start on, you were right. This kid needs to wake up to a bare Christmas tree. That would give him a rude awakening."

"It would be even better if they woke up and there was coal there." Amazing Rope Guy stated.

Robbie laughed, thinking of the children's crushed expressions when they realized they got nothing for Christmas and that it was their fault. "Why didn't we think of that sooner?"

Amazing Rope Guy shrugged.

"That's too perfect to pass up, I'm going back to my lab to get some coal. You get inside and unlock the door for me."

"You want me to go in by myself?"

"Just start moving the presents onto the sleigh and I'll help when I get back."

Amazing Rope Guy was used to working alone so he nodded. "What are you doing with coal anyway?"

"I have lots of things I experiment on in my lab."

As Robbie hurried off, Amazing Rope Guy regarded the house wondering how he was going to break in. By the stickers on the windows he could see they had a really good security system so he couldn't break the windows or kick at the door. Glancing up, he looked at the roof. It had an old fashioned chimney on top and he rolled his eyes.

"Tis the season."

Pulling out the grappling gun, he aimed it at the chimney and fired. It clasped around the brick securely and this time, he knew to wait. Sure enough several seconds later he heard a beeping then the rope began to retract, pulling him up with it. When he was on the roof, he put the grappling gun away, then inspected the chimney wondering if he would even fit down it. Glancing down, he saw it was surprising large on the inside and with his thin frame he wouldn't have any problem at all.

When he was sure there was no fire lit, he slid his legs into it and slowly began sliding himself down the chimney. When he reached the bottom, he crawled out and was met with the site of a Christmas tree and the largest pile of presents he'd ever seen in one spot.

"How many children do these people have?" he wondered out loud staring at the mound of presents in awe.

Knowing these presents would take up a large portion of the sleigh, he hoped the other houses didn't have quite so many children living in it. Quietly tip-toeing out of the living room into the hallway, he found the front door and unlocked it. He hurried back out to the sleigh and grabbed one of the sacks off the back of it. Seeing no sign of Robbie yet, he went back inside to start moving the presents.

Trying to stay as quiet as possible, Amazing Rope Guy looked the pile of presents over, not even sure where to begin. Finally just grabbing one and tossing it into the sack, it got him started so he began throwing everything he could in the sack. Some of the presents weighed quite a bit and he wondered what was in them. What could a child ask for that would be so heavy? When the sack was full, he went to hoist it over his shoulder so it could be carried out. He pulled but nothing happened. Furrowing his brow, he stanced his legs and tried again with the same results. Now determined, Amazing Rope Guy braced himself them lifted with all his might, groaning at the effort and strain on his arms. His knuckles were white from the force and his arms shook but he managed to lift the sack off of the floor.

It only lasted a second or so however because his knees buckled and he dropped the sack with a loud 'thwump'. Frowning, Amazing Rope Guy rolled his eyes and began dragging the sack towards the door. Even just dragging it was hard work and he was out of breath by the time he reached the front door. He yanked the sack across the snow and then looked up at the sleigh. There was no way he was going to be able to lift it up there, it would just have to wait on the ground until Robbie came back to help him.

Panting slightly, he grabbed another sack and headed back inside. Just wanting to catch his breath for a moment, he entered the kitchen which was right off the living room wondering if he could find something to drink. Figuring that he was robbing them anyway, he opened the fridge to see if they had coke or something. What he saw caused to pause and simply stare.

Every item in the fridge was labelled with the word 'MINE' in all capital letters. The fruit, vegetables, meat, milk, EVERYTHING was labelled with 'MINE'. Upon closer inspection, he actually found one item that wasn't labelled as 'MINE'; the jug of eggnog was labelled as 'NOT MINE'.

"Apparently he doesn't like eggnog?" Amazing Rope Guy hazzarded a guess.

Grabbing the eggnog and closing the fridge, he twisted off the top. Eggnog wasn't his favourite but it was the season. Taking a swig from the jug, he nearly choked on it when someone said.

"What are you doing?"

Spinning around, Amazing Rope Guy was relieved to see it was Robbie. He held up the eggnog and Robbie raised an eyebrow.

"You're stealing their food?"

"I was thirsty." he said defensively. "Besides we're already stealing from them so it hardly makes a difference."

He held out the eggnog to him and Robbie wrinkled his nose. "What's that?" he demanded.

"Eggnog."

"Eggnog? Isn't that stuff healthy? It has milk and eggs in it! Yuck."

"Eggnog's not healthy, it's full of sugar and fat and stuff." Amazing Rope Guy said.

Robbie now seemed interested. "Really? Well, I might try some if it's not healthy..."

He took the jug and very hesitantly brought it up to his lips. He tried a sip and did find it very thick and sweet not all healthy tasting so he took a few hearty gulps and handed it back.

"Not bad but a little weird."

Amazing Rope Guy took a drink himself then recapped it. "There's still a lot of presents here that we have to sack up, we should hurry."

Deciding to take the eggnog with them in case he got thirsty again, he tucked it under one arm, and led Robbie back into the living room.

"Okay, let's get these into the sack and then get out of here." Robbie said. "Here's the bag of coal for this house, the rest is outside."

He set down a small bag which clunked when it hit the floor.

Amazing Rope Guy opened the empty sack and Robbie began tossing presents in hurriedly, humming jingle bells as he did so. When they finally had every present, they both dragged the sack out of the house and to the sleigh. It took the both of them to lift it and then they lifted the other sack onto the sleigh as well, securing both with cords.

"I'm good with knots." Amazing Rope Guy informed Robbie. "Ropes are sort of my thing you know?"

"Can I have some more of that eggnog? This is hard work."

Passing him the jug, Robbie took a long drink from it and passed it back. Amazing Rope Guy drank some for himself, then re-capped it.

"Let's get to the next house, the Pink house is next."

"You mean Pinky's house? That'll be fun. She's a pain."

Crawling onto the tractor, Robbie started it up and drove them to the next house.

"So how did you get in last time?" he asked, when they got there.

"Through the chimney."

Robbie smiled. "Genius, but you have to be careful not to get stuck there. That happened to me last year."

Hopping down off the tractor, he set down the eggnog, pulled out the grappling gun and aimed it at the chimney. Firing it, the rope attached like he wanted and he waited for it to retract. Robbie watched with interest and picked up the eggnog. He found the stuff strangely addicting and swigged at it as Amazing Rope Guy made his way up to the roof. He watched as the other villain disappeared down the chimney and only a minute or two later the front door was opened.

Amazing Rope Guy was looking particularly proud of himself and he seized the eggnog. He hadn't eaten anything since that morning and was rather hungry so he drank several large gulps of the eggnog before following Robbie inside. In the living room, they found a rather modest little Christmas tree with several presents underneath. When they saw the presents underneath, they both started giggling at the same time.

"All the presents are pink and sparkly!" Amazing Rope Guy cried.

"It looks like a unicorn threw up in here!" Robbie said.

"This is that little pink girls house?"

"Whose else would it be?" Robbie asked with a snort. "She takes the whole pink thing a bit far! Ick, pink!"

Both laughed again, having a good time, neither feeling nervous anymore about their heist.

Robbie opened the sack and Amazing Rope Guy threw the presents inside, it only taking a moment and only filling a quarter of the sack.

"You got the coal?" Amazing Rope Guy asked.

Robbie grinned and held it up. "She'll be devastated the worst when she thinks she's she's been bad!"

Robbie put it under the tree and they both ran out of the house in good spirits. As they loaded up the sack, they each drank some more eggnog and practically jumped onto the tractor. They went to Pixel's house next and Amazing Rope Guy immediately pulled out the grappling gun. His hand a bit unsteady, he aimed and the shot missed the chimney completely.

Robbie thought that was hilarious and laughed at him, pointing at the limp rope. "You missed!" he said.

"Yeah, I'll get it this time!" Amazing Rope Guy said also laughing, retracting the rope so he could try again.

His second shot hit target and he gave Robbie a triumphant look. As the rope pulled him up onto the roof, Robbie grabbed another empty sack off of the sleigh. A couple minutes later they were both inside the house, looking at the strange metallic-looking Christmas tree. There was a small pile of gifts underneath, and each took a drink before getting started.

They began putting presents into the sack and were almost done when Robbie stopped him.

"Hey, see if you can get one in!" Robbie called holding the sack open and backing away several feet.

Amazing Rope Guy looked down at the gift in his hands and grinned. Reeling back his arm, he whipped it at the other man and Robbie managed to catch it in the sack with a laugh.

"Okay, okay, now try over here!" he moved across the room and jumped up on the couch.

Amazing Rope Guy picked up another gift and threw it and again got it in the sack.

"Try to see if you can get it in if I'm moving!"

Robbie began moving back and forth from one side of the room to the other and Amazing Rope Guy picked up the last gift determinedly. He threw the gift but at the same time he lost his balance and fell over backwards into the tree. He knocked the tree over with a crash and the gift that he'd thrown hit, Robbie in the shoulder, knocking him over into a ceramic village scene. Little people and houses were scattered all over the floor as well as ornaments and lights. Both villains exchanged shocked looks. Robbie grabbed the last gift and shoved it into the sack.

"Er... I think it's time to go to the next house..."

Amazing Rope Guy glanced around. "...uh...yeah, we should leave."

Running out of the house as fast as they could, they threw the sack on the tractor and drove off as fast as they could. When they were to the next house, they stopped and stared at each other for a moment then burst out into laughter.

"Oops." Robbie said in-between snickers.

The drank some more eggnog as they sat there a moment trying to catch their breath, in good spirits and smiling.

"You know, I think it's getting warmer out." Amazing Rope Guy stated. "I'm not even cold anymore and I'm not even wearing a coat."

Robbie nodded his agreement. "It's very warm, I hope the snow doesn't melt, or the sleigh won't be much good."

"Whose house is this?" Amazing Rope Guy asked.

"Miss. Busybody's." Robbie said distastefully. "She's really annoying, she's always yelling at me. She's an old crank."

"Let's go ruin her Christmas then!" Amazing Rope Guy said, jumping off the tractor, almost losing his balance. "I didn't like her."

Robbie got down as well watching him as he fumbled with the grappling gun. This time it took him five tries to hit his mark. Once he was on the roof, he wobbled around a bit then gripped the chimney for balance. He took longer this time getting down and unlocking the door but Robbie didn't notice as he was in such a good mood.

In Miss. Busybody's living room they found an immaculately neat Christmas tree like something an OCD person would put up. Each ornament was exactly the same distance apart as well as the lights and beads. Robbie knew she had probably made her boyfriend, the Mayor Meanswell, put it up for her and snorted. She had several presents under her tree so he handed Amazing Rope Guy the sack and approached.

As he picked one up, he grinned wickedly and laughed. "Oh, you're a mean ooone, miiister grinch!" he sang. "You reeeally are a heeeal!"

Amazing Rope Guy laughed.

Robbie continued as he threw the present in. "You're as cuddly as a cactus! You're as charming as an eeeeel, Mr. Gri-inch!"

"You're a bad banana with a greasy black peeeel!" Amazing Rope Guy finished for him, his voice cracking.

Robbie winced then laughed again. Shoving some more presents into the sack, he found he felt a little strange. His mind seemed rather fuzzy but he assumed it was the excitement of the heist doing strange things to him.

After the last present was in the sack, they turned their attention to the tree and decided to mix up a few ornaments just to mess up the evenness of the tree. They switched quite a few all around, giggling all the while then left the bag of coal and quickly slipped out the door. Both were staggering slightly and had trouble getting to the sleigh for some reason. When the sack was loaded and they were finally on the tractor, they took another drink of eggnog and continued on.

At this point neither of them could remember how many houses they had left so after the next two they hit they weren't really sure if they were done or not. Robbie was sure that was everyone but at this point neither of them could remember why they were even dressed up as santa and his elf, or outside in the first place.

"I feel a little sick." Robbie said. "I think I drank too much eggnog."

"What eggnog?"

"This stuff!" Robbie said, pushing the now empty jug at Amazing Rope Guy.

"Oh."

"Let's go home." Robbie said, starting the tractor engine.

As they drove back towards the billboard, the tractor was swerving all over the place. It slipped and fish-tailed all over the place as they crossed the field and Robbie didn't seem to see the big drift of snow ahead of him. Hitting it, they instantly came to a standstill, stuck in the snow.

"Aw, shoot." Robbie said.

Both got down and saw the tractor was half buried in snow. For some reason they both thought that was hilarious and started laughing. Robbie crawled up onto the sleigh and sprawled across the empty sacks. Amazing Rope Guy gave him a questioning look.

"What good is that going to do?" he asked.

"Dunno, but it's comfy up here. Come up."

Amazing Rope Guy pulled himself up beside Robbie and laid beside him. They both stared at the huge pile of presents behind them and giggled.

"This is the best Christmas ever." Amazing Rope Guy said. "I should make this a tradition."

"Yeah," Robbie agreed, pulling some of the sacks overtop of himself.

They both looked up at the sky and noticed how clear it was, not a cloud in sight.

"There's so many stars." Amazing Rope Guy said. "You can't see them in the city."

"We should steal those too."

Both giggled at that then fell silent. Amazing Rope Guy had never gotten into Christmas before and also loathed this time of year. This was the very first time he had a Christmas that he had truly enjoyed and it had been with a partner of all things! Robbie began to snore beside him and Amazing Rope Guy smiled. Maybe he'd come back next Christmas...

Pulling some sacks over himself, Amazing Rope Guy edged closer to Robbie and curled up. He was feeling really tired for some reason and could barely keep his eyes open. Before he could really consider this in too much depth he had passed out, warm and snug beside Robbie both covered by the empty bags. That was where Sportacus found them the next morning still sound asleep.


	2. Chapter 2

Ropes and purple Christmas trees

* * *

><p>Chapter two<p>

Sportacus stared down at the two villains in curiosity, taking in the scene. Both were curled up together to keep warm, the mountain of presents towering over them. Observing the askew costumes and sleigh piled with presents, the hero quickly realized what they had been up to the night before. He crossed his arms and frowned.

His crystal was going off all over town at once and now he knew the reason. These were two villains who were definitely going to get a scolding from him when they woke up. Everyone in town was devastated, not realizing this was one of Robbie's schemes and Sportacus was torn between immediately going to them or dealing with the errant villains first. Giving another frown, Sportacus bounced lightly on his feet, as he considered which he should start with.

He looked down at Amazing Rope Guy and Robbie and saw they were just covered in a few empty sacks. The night had been cold and Sportacus wondered why they'd slept outside when they were so close to Robbie's lair. It was dangerous sleeping outside this time of year and Sportacus hoped neither of them got sick because of this. Concerned, he wondered if he should wake the villains first.

As he was pondering this, he heard a loud happy shriek from behind him. Glancing over his shoulder, he saw the children galloping towards the sleigh, huge, eager grins in place.

"There they are!" Ziggy cried out happily. "See! I knew Santa wouldn't forget about us!"

"Wow, look at them all!" Pixel exclaimed as they got closer.

"They're obviously all mine!" Stingy stated, running hard, trying to beat the other children there.

They reached the sleigh and instantly began climbing it, looking greedily at the presents. Stephanie caught sight of the two villains and stood over them, arms crossed, completely put out.

"Robbie Rotten!" she scolded loudly, prodding him with her foot. "We should have known! You took all our presents! Amazing Rope Guy too! Ugh!"

Neither villain stirred, instead shifting slightly to get more comfortable. The children looked down at them, and shook their heads with a sigh, used to such things and then turned excitedly towards their presents.

"I can't get up!" Ziggy protested, trying his best to climb up onto the sleigh. His arms and legs much too short, all he succeeded in doing was dangling uselessly.

Sportacus smiled down at the small blond boy and reached down and lifted him up onto the sleigh with the others.

"Thank you Sportacus!" Ziggy chirped, instantly diving into the presents with the other children.

The children all automatically threw all of the pink presents to Stephanie not having to even look at the nametag and went about sorting their own. Stingy had by far the largest pile and every child stared at it enviously as the brown-haired boy sat on top of the pile guarding it.

"Here's another one for you, Trixie!" Pixel yelled, holding up a gift.

The pig-tailed girl was quick to snatch it up as everyone began ripping open wrapping paper from their presents.

Mayor Meanswell and Bessie came out a few minutes later, both looking flustered and rather confused. When they approached and saw the huge mountain of presents they shot annoyed glances at the two villains. Bessie was by far the angriest and when they were standing beside Sportacus, she turned up furious eyes at him.

"Those...those brats!" Bessie cried out dramatically, pointing at them. "They messed up my house and stole all my beautiful presents! They're rascals, the both of them!"

Sportacus gave her a sympathetic look as she stomped over to the sleigh and grabbed Robbie and Amazing Rope Guy by the collars and began shaking them.

"Up! Both of you up!" she ordered in her most 'you are in big trouble' voice. "Wake up now!"

They didn't wake and instead rolled over under the empty sacks, instinctively trying to escape the annoying noise in their ears.

Bessie gave them another shake but got no response. Rather put out, she turned to Sportacus who was bending over to pick up the empty egg nog container. He looked at it curiously and saw the little post-it with 'NOT MINE' written on it.

"Stingy, is this from your house?" he asked, holding it up.

Stingy looked up from his presents and frowned. "They took daddy's eggnog? They're going to be in biiiig trouble! Daddy said no one but him is allowed to drink his eggnog!"

Sportacus unscrewed the cap and gave the jug a careful sniff. He gave a more pronounced frown then gave the two villains an incredulous look.

"They're drunk." he stated.

The adults were the only ones who heard him and were shocked. Bessie promptly stopped shaking them and asked.

"Drunk? Lazytown doesn't have liquor here! Where did it come from? Did that Amazing Rope Guy bring it here?"

Sportacus shook his head and held up the eggnog. "No, they drank some eggnog that apparently had some of Stingy's father's private collection in it."

The mayor scratched his chin. "Did they know it had liquor in it?" he wondered aloud.

Sportacus sighed and replied. "I'll have to ask them when they wake up. A little now and then is okay but overindulging is very bad for you."

"Oh, heavens, don't tell Robbie that or we'll have a town drunk!" Bessie pled.

Sportacus gave her a reassuring smile. "Once Robbie wakes up, I don't think he'll want any more. He's not going to feel very good."

Bessie crossed her arms. "Good, serves them both right, let them have a hangover! Maybe that will teach them not to destroy my house!"

Pixel paused from opening his gifts. "You think they messed up your house? They collapsed my mom's Christmas village and knocked over the tree! There's ornaments everywhere!"

Sportacus was mentally compiling a list of all the things he'd have to discuss with Robbie and Amazing Rope Guy later and gave a sigh. He didn't really want to scold anyone on Christmas but it was necessary.

Bessie gave the sleeping villains a look of death then reached for her own presents as the Mayor approached to do the same. Sportacus watched everyone open their presents with a slight smile, glad at least everyone's mood seemed to be improving now that they got their presents back. Once all of the presents were open and the children were playing with their new toys, Sportacus glanced over at the villains.

Wondering if he should wake them now or at least attempt to, he scratched his chin and considered it. After a moment, he gave a decisive nod, deciding they's slept long enough and they could just deal with their hangover. He imagined they'd be full of excuses and was prepared to listen but not accept any lies.

In their excitement, the children kept stepping on the villains and dropping toys and wrapping paper on them but neither men seemed to notice. Sportacus began approaching, listening to the excited chatter of the children with a smile.

Ziggy leaned over the edge of the sleigh and held up a red fire-truck to the hero.

"Look what Santa brought me! It lights up and the wheels turn!"

"I'll look at it in a bit, Ziggy, I need to have a bit of a talk with Robbie and Amazing Rope Guy."

Ziggy looked down at Robbie who was snoring loudly. "Are they in trouble?"

"Yes, Ziggy, they are." Sportacus replied gently.

Ziggy seemed a bit uncertain. "Are you going to send them to their rooms for stealing our toys?"

Sportacus gave a laugh. "I just want to have a talk with them." he said, with a smile.

Ziggy nodded as he respectively backed away. "Oh."

Sportacus looked down at the villains and pulled away the empty sacks, letting the cold winter air blow directly on them. Reaching out towards them, he shook both of their shoulders, firmly, trying to get a reaction. The cold air and shaking making them stir slightly, they both tried to roll away from the annoying hero. Sportacus, having none of that grabbed them both by the ankle and began dragging them off the back of the sleigh.

They both landed in a snowdrift, causing them to wake with a startled yell as snow went down the backs of theirs shirts and into their faces. Extremely cold, and also extremely hung over they looked up at him incomprehensibly. Robbie let out a loud groan and clutched at his temples with both hands, feeling like his skull was splitting open.

"Ow." he complained. "Why's my head hurt so bad?"

Amazing Rope Guy blinked blearily at Robbie for a moment then turned his attention up at Sportacus. It took his mind a few seconds to clear enough to realize what was happening and when it did, his eyes widened to comic proportions as he saw the clearly annoyed and very strong hero standing over them.

Not sure what Sportacus would do to them especially after last night, he panicked and scrambled to get away. He was half buried in a snowbank so his hands and feet were slipping as he clawed to get away. He only moved a few inches before Sportacus placed his hand on his shoulder, stopping him.

"What's the matter?" Sportacus asked in concern.

"No!" Amazing Rope Guy yelled, falling backwards placing his hands over his face.

Sportacus instantly knelt down beside him, shocked at the man's reaction. "You don't have to be afraid of me. I won't hurt you. What's the matter?"

Amazing Rope Guy hesitantly lowered his hands. "You're not angry?" he asked incredulously. "You're not here to 'exact justice'?"

"Well," Sportacus said, rocking slightly on the balls of his feet. "I want to talk to the both of you but I'm not going to hurt you. Why don't you get up out of the snow? You must be cold."

"Sportacus!" Stephanie yelled over to them. "Robbie's being sick under the sleigh!"

Sportacus looked over and sure enough, Robbie was hunched over behind the sleigh looking positively miserable. Sportacus quickly approached and knelt beside Robbie, placing a hand on the mans back as he retched. Amazing Rope Guy slowly stood up, rubbing at his forehead and brushed off the loose snow off his clothes. He sat himself on the end of the sleigh and wrapped himself in a couple empty sacks as he waited for Sportacus to finish with Robbie. He gave a shiver and wiped at his nose, trying to ignore the not so pleasant sounds coming from Robbie.

A minute or so later Robbie crawled up beside Amazing Rope Guy looking nauseous and a bit pale. He took some of the sacks and wrapped them around himself and sat hunched over, looking like he wanted to die.

"I think I have the flu." he complained. "I don't feel good."

Sportacus crossed his arms. "No, Robbie, you're hung-over. That's what happens when you drink too much alcohol."

He received two blank stares.

"But we didn't have any alcohol..." Amazing Rope Guy stated.

Sportacus held up the empty eggnog jug. "This had alcohol in it and you two drank too much of it, that's why you're feeling sick."

Amazing Rope Guy and Robbie exchanged a dumbfounded look. They had been drinking that for hours and didn't even taste it!

"It was spiked?" Amazing Rope Guy asked, staring at the jug, still not quite believing him.

Sportacus nodded. "That's why you should never take something without asking first because you don't know what's in it!"

The villains exchanged another look.

"What the two of you did last night wasn't very nice at all!" Sportacus scolded. "Stealing Christmas presents made everyone really upset. I've talked to you before about taking things that don't belong to you, Robbie."

"I wasn't 'stealing'." Robbie stated defensively. "We were, uh... we were just getting into the Christmas spirit!"

Sportacus raised a skeptical eyebrow.

"It's true, we thought it would be fun to deliver the presents ourselves! That's why we're dressed up as Santa and his elf! We weren't stealing!"

Amazing Rope Guy couldn't believe how lame that lie was. He himself gave Robbie an incredulous look as Sportacus frowned.

"Robbie," Sportacus began, his voice gentle but firm. "I know you weren't going to deliver the presents. Fibbing is not a good habit to get into, soon everyone won't believe anything you say if you continue to fib."

Robbie's expression turned sulky and he gave Sportacus a pouty look, knowing he couldn't weasel his way out of this one.

"Taking things that don't belong to you is a very bad thing to do. It upsets people and gets you in trouble. You're supposed to be good at Christmastime, it's the time of year everyone is together and happy!"

At this Robbie gave a derisive snort. "I wasn't even invited to your stupid Christmas party! No one ever invites me. It's not a time for 'togetherness', it's only a time for YOU!"

Sportacus was surprised. "Robbie, you're a part of our town too! The parties we have are for everyone, you don't need an invitation! You were always more than welcome to join us. Is that why you tried to ruin Christmas? Were you upset at us?"

Robbie looked away, his cheeks a bit red. "I didn't want to go to your dumb party anyway. It was probably full of healthy things."

Sportacus then glanced at Amazing Rope Guy. "I know you and Robbie are friends but you should not have helped him with this. You told me you were going to behave yourself over Christmas and this is definitely not behaving! You're new in town and things might be different where you're from, but here, stealing and causing mischief is wrong. There are other things you can do instead, plenty of games and fun you can join in on!"

Amazing Rope Guy wasn't impressed and crossed his arms. "They deserved it." he stated with finality.

Sportacus cocked his head in confusion. "Who deserved it?" he questioned.

"Those little brats deserved coal for Christmas." he said, meeting Sportacus's eyes directly. "I did nothing to them and they threw snowballs at my face and told me to get out of town! Any children like that deserve to have their presents taken."

Sportacus frowned openly. "I'm sorry your feelings were hurt, Amazing Rope Guy. The children were wrong to say those things to you and to chase you away from them. I spoke with them after you'd left and they're incredibly sorry for what they did. They didn't mean what they said, they just don't know you yet. They were worried about what sort of mischief you'd cause but I know you can behave yourself like you said you would."

Amazing Rope Guy didn't look convinced so Sportacus looked over at the children who were trying to pretend they weren't listening.

"Children, come here a moment." he requested, beckoning with a finger towards the end of the sleigh.

The children instantly slunk over, nervous that they were going to be scolded again.

"You heard what Amazing Rope Guy said, am I right?" he asked.

The children nodded hesitantly.

"He helped Robbie steal the presents because he was hurt by what you did. He thought you were bad children since that was the first time he met you." Sportacus explained. "He should not have taken your presents, that was wrong, but you were wrong also as you didn't exactly leave a very good first impression."

The children all looked appropriately chastised and looked at Amazing Rope Guy sadly.

"I'm really sorry, Amazing Rope Guy." Stephanie said. "Anyone is welcome in Lazytown, we shouldn't have been mean to you."

"Yeah, I'm sorry too!" Trixie put in. "Even though you seem kinda weird, I'll give you a chance."

"Me too." Pixel stated. "You can stay here as long as you want. We're not bad kids, really!"

Stingy pushed past the others and cleared his throat. "Although I own everything in Lazytown, I suppose it would be alright if you stayed here. I'm sorry I threw snow at you."

Ziggy threw his arms around Robbie's and Amazing Rope Guy's necks as he let out a wail. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!"

"Ziggy!" Stephanie said in exasperation. "You weren't even there when this happened; you were building a snowman with Sportacus!"

Ziggy instantly stopped crying. "Oh, yeah...well, I'm happy with anyone living in Lazytown, lot's more people to play with!"

Staring at the children's apologetic looks and currently being glommed by one of them, Amazing Rope Guy found himself relenting. He let out a sigh and nodded.

Sportacus gave him an expectant look. "Do you have anything to say to them as well?" he urged.

Feeling extremely awkward, Amazing Rope Guy wondered if they still would have apologized to him if they knew they had been planning to rob them before the whole park incident and before he had met any of the townspeople. Not likely. He shifted slightly and looked up at Sportacus who was looking at him encouragingly, friendly smile in place.

"...sorry?" Amazing Rope Guy said hesitantly, not really sure what they wanted from him.

His halfhearted apology seemed to please Sportacus who grinned and turned his gaze to Robbie. "How about you, Robbie? Do you have anything to say? You two caused a lot of mischief last night and I think everyone deserves an apology from you too."

Robbie stubbornly crossed his arms and looked away, nose in the air.

Sportacus reached over and gave the villain a nudge. "Come on, Robbie."

Robbie gave a snort but otherwise stayed silent.

Sportacus gave him another nudge. "You stole all their presents and also made a big mess in their homes. Don't you think they deserve an apology?"

"No."

"Come on, Robbie, don't be like that. If you don't apologize, you're going to have to be punished. It's much easier to say you're sorry, then everything's better."

Robbie turned to look at him with narrowed eyes. "I'm not sorry and I know you won't hit me. There's nothing you can do."

Sportacus rolled his eyes thinking Robbie sounded more like one of the children than the town villain. "Very well, Robbie. Since you refused to apologize, you're going to join us for Christmas dinner and I can assure you I'm going to make sure you eat every vegetable on the table."

Robbie let out a horrified gasp. "You wouldn't!"

Sportacus crossed his arms. "I would and I am. Some sportscandy would do you good, you might even like it."

Robbie completely balked and stared at Sportacus with wide, alarmed eyes. "Okay fine, Sportadork! I'm sorry, okay? I'm sorry I took the stupid presents!"

Sportacus gave a nod then said. "That's great, Robbie, but I shouldn't have to force you to apologize. I still think you should come to Christmas dinner. You two are all by yourselves today anyway, so being near everyone will be good for you."

Robbie looked completely scandalized. "No! I won't, I refuse!" he cried out. "You tricked me!"

Amazing Rope Guy wasn't entirely sure what the big deal over being invited to Christmas dinner was. Free food was always welcome in his opinion. Was this Sportacus fellow that bad of a cook?

Robbie clutched at his head, the yelling making his headache worse. He let out a dramatic groan and gave Sportacus an imploring look.

"I'm sick, I just want to sleep, I don't want to go to the dinner!"

"You can lay down on the couch while dinners cooking." Sportacus said with finality.

The children were now gathering up their toys into sacks, getting cold and wanting to move inside. Sportacus noticed this and said.

"Everyone's going inside now, so you should go with them and get out of the cold."

Stephanie rushed forward and grabbed them both by the hand. "Come on, the dinner's at my house! We're having lot's of healthy stuff!"

As the small pink girl tugged them off of the sleigh, Robbie looked like he was going to be sick again. They were pulled across the field towards the houses and Amazing Rope Guy looked over at Robbie curiously.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"No, I don't think so." Robbie answered. "Just thinking about that dinner is making me feel sick. Ick, stupid vegetables."

"Hangovers don't last that long, just a couple hours." Amazing Rope Guy assured him. "Your headache should get better once you lay down."

Robbie nodded with another dramatic groan.

Once they were at Stephanie's house, she led them inside and gestured around with a wave of her hand. "This is my house." she announced, to Amazing Rope Guy.

"Yeah, I know, I've seen it." he answered.

"Oh yeah..." she said, looking at him a bit oddly. "The kitchen is over there if you want breakfast, you can have whatever you want and this is the living room."

Robbie immediately flopped down on the couch, looking tired and grouchy. As Stephanie placed her sack of toys under the tree, Amazing Rope Guy went into the kitchen to inspect what was there. Feeling nauseous from the hangover and knowing exactly what to do in this situation, he headed to the fridge. Pulling out a carton of orange juice, he found a couple of glasses and filled them to the brim. Stephanie entered the kitchen and gave him a smile.

"Do you want anything else?" she asked.

"Yeah, Advil." he answered.

Stephanie cocked her head at him curiously. "Advil? Are you sick too?" she asked.

"Robbie and I just have headaches." he stated. "The Advil will help with that."

Stephanie hesitated. "I'm not allowed to touch the pill cabinet."

"It's fine, I'm an adult." he replied, hoping the girl wouldn't refuse.

Stephanie gave him an indecisive look then nodded slowly. "I'll get it for you." she said, hurrying from the room.

She returned only a minute or so later, holding a small white bottle. Amazing Rope Guy quickly seized it, and popped the top off, pouring the pills into his hand. Only four small pills rolled out and he frowned down at them. Setting the empty bottle on the counter, he picked up the glasses of orange juice and walked back into the living room. Sitting down on the other end of the couch beside Robbie, he held out one of the glasses of juice.

"Here."

Robbie opened an eye and looked at the juice suspiciously. "What's that?" he demanded.

"Orange juice.

"Yuck, too healthy."

Amazing Rope Guy held out the juice a little further. "It'll help with the hangover." he stated.

Before Amazing Rope Guy could even react, Robbie had grabbed the glass and downed half of it, wincing the entire time. Amazing Rope Guy held out two of the Advil to the other man who gratefully took the pills.

"The hangover should be pretty much gone in a few hours or so." he said, taking his own pills with the orange juice.

Robbie looked over at him with narrowed eyes. "How do you know so much about hangovers?" he demanded.

"..."

Robbie finished his orange juice and set the empty glass on the coffee table. "Are you a drunk?"

"No...I just don't hold my liquor well." Amazing Rope Guy explained.

Accepting the answer, Robbie shrugged and laid back down, closing his eyes, enjoying the quiet and dark. Amazing Rope Guy finished his own juice, set down his glass, and sprawled out on the other end of the couch hoping the pink girl would stay quiet for a while so he could sleep the hangover off, he closed his eyes and pulled a cushion closer to himself.

* * *

><p>"He got Robbie to drink orange juice! How did he do that?"<p>

"What do you think he looks like under his mask?"

"He covers his head with that hood, do you think he's bald?"

"Well, one way to find out!"

Amazing Rope Guy's eyes cracked open to see the pig-tailed girl pulling at his costume. Instantly fully awake, he bolted upright and tried to scramble away from her. The only thing he succeeded in doing was falling on top of Robbie, waking the other villain with a start. They stared at each other a moment and the children giggled.

"Sorry," Amazing Rope Guy apologized. "They were trying to remove my mask."

"Couldn't you have fallen the other direction?" Robbie groused, pushing him off.

Mayor Meanswell poked his head in from the kitchen. "Oh, good, you two are awake, dinner will be ready soon. It shouldn't be too much longer."

Amazing Rope Guy sat back on the other side of the couch as Robbie gave a huge yawn and rubbed at his eyes. Ziggy approached and crawled up beside the two of them.

"Where are you from, Mr. Amazing Rope Guy?" he asked curiously. "From far away?"

Amazing Rope Guy gave a nod. "I'm from Fair City."

"Is that far from here?" Ziggy asked.

Amazing Rope Guy shrugged. "I don't know."

"Why don't you know? Don't you know where you live?"

"I ended up here by accident." Amazing Rope Guy explained. "I'm not sure how far my city is from here."

The other children were now interested as well and seated themselves near his feet to listen.

"How did you end up here?" Ziggy inquired.

"I used one of Dr. Two-Brains inventions and it teleported me here."

"Teleportation is impossible." Pixel stated. "There's no physical possibility it can work."

Robbie gave a snort. "Shows how much you know, Poodle."

"There are other villains besides you in Fair City?" Stingy asked in awe.

Amazing Rope Guy nodded. "There's tons of us. Dr. Two-Brains is a mad scientist who has the brain of a mouse infused with his own. He can smell and hear things people can't and he has more energy than any scientist I've ever seen."

"That's his super-power?" Trixie asked, interested. "What can the other Super-villains do?"

"Whammer can send shock waves through the air or any surface causing a lot of damage, Miss Question has a flying question mark she rides on and had the power to make you question yourself and everything you do or say, Mr. Big has the power of mind control, Tobey is a boy genius who creates giant robots to destroy the city, Lady Redundant Woman can create multiples of herself, The Butcher can shoot any kind of meat out of his hands and Chuck the Evil Sandwich Making Guy invents his own sauces that glues people in place, burns through steel bars or even turns into a cement like goop."

"Wow!" Ziggy exclaimed. "Those are some neat powers!"

"Yeah!" Trixie agreed. "That's cool!"

"Are those all the villains in your city?" Pixel asked.

"Not even close, there's tons more and they all have their own special powers or abilities too!"

"What's your power Mr. Amazing Rope Guy?" Ziggy asked, big blue eyes looking up at him innocently.

"...erm..."

"I bet it's something really cool like laser-eyes or being able to fly!" Trixie exclaimed.

"Yeah," Stephanie agreed. "Or maybe he can run super-fast, or is really strong!"

Amazing Rope Guy coughed slightly then said. "I think I heard the call for dinner...you better go check!"

"I didn't hear anything!" Stephanie stated.

"Maybe he has super-hearing!" Ziggy suggested.

All the children hurriedly got to their feet. "Come on, dinner!" Stingy urged, as they all ran into the other room.

Amazing Rope Guy let out a breath of relief then immediately jumped to his feet as Robbie gave him a questioning look.

"Where are you going?"

"I'm getting out of here before they ask me more questions." he answered, hurrying towards the door.

Robbie instantly bounded after him. "Wait, I'm coming too!"

Amazing Rope Guy wasn't sure what it was about him, but children seemed to flock around him and it was a bit irritating at times, especially when he was attempting to be a terrifying villain.

They made it to the front door and Amazing Rope Guy threw it open, only to be met with the sight of Sportacus standing on the doorstep.

"Oh, hello!" he greeted, large grin in place. "How did you know I was here?"

Amazing Rope Guy sighed. "Just lucky I guess."

"I'm not late am I?" Sportacus asked as he flipped into the house enthusiastically.

"No."

"Great, come on then!" the hero said. "Let's go see if it's ready yet!"

Amazing Rope Guy grudgingly shut the door and both villains followed after him into the kitchen. The mayor looked up at them and smiled.

"It's all ready, I'm just setting everything on the table."

"Do you need any help?" Sportacus asked.

"No no, I'm fine, you go and take a seat in the dining room."

Robbie crossed his arms and gave the hero a dirty look. "This is stupid." he muttered. "I have perfectly good food at my house, I don't need to eat here."

"You caused the mischief, so you can handle one meal with us for retribution." Sportacus answered, ushering them into the dining room.

Everyone else was already seated and Ziggy waved at them cheerily. Sportacus sat them down next to each other then took his seat at the head of the table. Robbie was scowling at his empty plate as the mayor came in carrying the last of the feast. He took his own seat and smiled at everyone gathered, which was nearly the entire town.

Everyone instantly began scooping some of the different dishes onto their plates, passing the bowls around to the next person beside them.

Sportacus turned his attention to the two villains who hadn't yet moved. "I want you to have meat, potatoes and at least three kinds of vegetables."

Robbie looked like he was going to faint. "WHAT? No way!" he protested.

"Robbie, that is a well-balanced dinner and I want you choose which vegetables you want."

"I may sit here, but I'm not eating it! You can't make me!"

Sportacus frowned. "Choose or I can choose for you and whatever I put on your plate, you're eating. You'll be sitting there until you do."

"I won't." Robbie stated stubbornly.

"Fine, have it your own way." Sportacus stated, getting up so he could get Robbie's plate.

He plopped a scoop of potatoes on the plate then reached for the bowl of broccoli.

"Not that!" Robbie protested.

Sportacus hesitated. "Then what do you want?" he asked.

"Nothing."

Sportacus continued going for the broccoli.

"Wait!" Robbie cried. "Okay, I'll choose!"

Sportacus gave him an expectant look.

Robbie looked at the different vegetables and felt nauseated just looking at them. Having no idea what they actually tasted like, he knew anything green had to be the worst and decided to avoid those. Deciding he liked the orange colour of the carrots, he pointed at those.

"Um, those, I guess."

Sportacus scooped some onto the plate then said, "Okay, now two more."

Robbie frowned and then pointed at the corn. "That." He figured anything that popcorn came from couldn't be that horrendous.

"One more and this one has to be green."

"What? Why?" Robbie demanded.

"Green vegetables are the most healthy for you. Pick one of those."

Robbie wrinkled his nose as he looked the green vegetables over, trying to figure out which one would taste the least bad. Finally pointing at the peas, Sportacus smiled and scooped them onto his plate. Setting the now full plate back in front of Robbie, he gave him an expectant look.

"There, now eat your dinner Robbie."

"No, I don't want to." he answered crossing his arms.

"Then you'll be sitting there an awfully long time because you're not allowed to move until you've eaten."

Robbie scowled down at the plate, having no intention of trying anything on it. Picking up his fork, he rolled around some of the peas and allowed one to roll onto the end of his fork. Staring at it like it carried the plague, he gave the fork a flick sending the pea flying across the table. Bessie let out an indignant cry as the pea struck her forehead and gave Robbie a scalding look.

"Robbie, eat." Sportacus encouraged. "It's good."

"Yuck."

"No, Robbie, it tastes good if you'll only try it!"

Robbie curled his lip up in a sneer and flicked another pea at Bessie.

"Not eating it." he said sulkily.

Amazing Rope Guy was already eating his dinner and wasn't sure what the problem with Robbie was. Giving his partner in crime a confused look he leaned over and whispered.

"Why don't you just eat it? He'll leave you alone if you do."

"No."

What's wrong with it?"

Robbie turned a pouty look on him. "I don't eat healthy food; it's all disgusting. I only eat unhealthy food, like cake and sweets."

"Have you ever tried any of it?" Amazing Rope Guy asked genuinely curious. "How do you know it's gross?"

"It's healthy, I don't need any other reason than that. I won't eat it."

Amazing Rope Guy couldn't believe Robbie had never tried any of the food before just because it was healthy. He found it strange but was willing to help. After all, he didn't feel like being here all night.

"Hey," he whispered in a conspiratory tone. "Did you know if you pour salt and gravy on everything it makes it unhealthy? It makes everything taste like gravy and you can't even taste the vegetables."

Robbie raised an eyebrow. "Really? It takes the disgustingly healthiness out of everything?"

Amazing Rope Guy nodded. "It even makes it bad for you."

Robbie instantly turned his eyes on his plate again, thinking. He supposed it might be worth a try if it was unhealthy, there was no harm in it after all. If it still tasted like disgusting healthiness, he just wouldn't eat any more of it.

"Can I have salt?" Robbie asked Sportacus.

"Of course!" the hero stated, handing it to him.

Robbie shook a good amount over his food then looked up again. "I want gravy too."

Although both the salt and gravy were bad for him, Sportacus was incredibly pleased that it looked like Robbie was going to eat. He had seen the whispered conversation between the villains and wondered what it was about.

Robbie smirked and drenched every inch of his plate in gravy enjoying the way Sportacus's mouth actually dropped open.

"There." Robbie stated. "All better now."

Picking up his fork, he flashed Sportacus a cocky smirk then tried the first mouthful of dripping vegetables. He found it to be strange but not too bad considering what it was. Amazing Rope Guy was right and the gravy seemed to be overpowering the tastes.

Sportacus nearly recoiled at the sight of all the gravy on the plate but didn't say anything. Robbie was willingly trying vegetables so he didn't want to rock the boat too much. Robbie couldn't remember tasting anything like this before and decided, he still didn't like it (even with the gravy and salt )

When the dinner was finished, dessert was served, which Robbie had seconds of, and everyone was full, the children all jumped to their feet.

"Let's go play outside!" Stephanie suggested.

"Yeah!" Trixie yelled, pumping a fist. "I need to settle with you about yesterday's snowball fight."

Sportacus gave a grin. "Let's all go outside and have some fun!" he said.

Much against their will, Robbie and Amazing Rope Guy were ushered outside with the children and were once again standing outside in the bitter cold. They watched Sportacus flip around the children as they yelled and shrieked in delight, throwing snow and the villains exchanged a look.

"Escape to my place?" Robbie offered.

"Yes, yes and yes." Amazing Rope Guy stated, as both villains made a hasty retreat back to Robbie's lair to hide for the rest of the day.


	3. Chapter 3

Ropes and purple Christmas trees

Chapter three

The first thing Amazing Rope Guy did once back in the lair was pull off the elf costume and toss it aside, glad to be just in his regular costume again. Robbie however approached the back of the lair where several large tubes were and turned to face him.

"Check this out!" he said pulling a switch.

Robbie spun in place fast, the device working so quickly it couldn't be seen, and Robbie himself was a blur of motion. When he stopped only a second or so later, he was in his old costume, the Santa suit back in the tube.

Amazing Rope Guy just stared. "What...what was that?" he asked after a moment.

"My costume changer!"

"That's...really lazy." Amazing Rope Guy commented.

"I know!" Robbie stated proudly. "Isn't it great?"

"It's something all right."

Amazing Rope Guy glanced around the room, his eyes settling on Robbie's small forgotten Christmas tree in the corner. He cocked his head curiously.

"I thought you hated Christmas?" he asked.

Robbie looked over. "I have nothing against Christmas, it's just the noise and blue elf I have a problem with." he answered.

"Why purple?" Amazing Rope Guy asked, touching one of the dyed branches carefully.

Robbie gave him a look like he was an idiot. "Because purple is better than green!" he retorted. "Everything's better in purple!"

Loud shrieking and laughing suddenly seemed to fill the room and Amazing Rope Guy glanced all around unable to determine where it was coming from. He looked at Robbie in disconcertion and the other man sighed heavily.

"Blasted brats." he muttered. "Stupid Sportaflop is getting them all worked up again."

"That's coming from outside?"

Robbie nodded grouchily.

"How? We're underground, we shouldn't be able to hear a thing!"

Robbie sighed dramatically and gestured upwards towards the ceiling. "The piping and shafts that run through the ground make sound echo through my lair like they're screeching right beside me. No matter what I do, I can't block out the sound."

Amazing Rope Guy thought that really sucked and knew it would probably drive someone mad when they were trying to concentrate on their work. "Have you asked them to keep it down a bit?"

Robbie gave a disdainful laugh. "You have no idea! All I do is complain about the noise and if anything, they get noisier! I've pulled scheme after scheme to get rid of Sportakook but he always seems to foil me. It's horrible!"

Amazing Rope Guy shook his head in sympathy knowing exactly what it was like to never succeed in a plan. Robbie seemed agitated and paced around the room, shoving various pieces of machinery out of his way. Amazing Rope Guy watched him go at it without a word and after a few minutes, Robbie stopped his stomping and got a thoughtful look on his face.

He turned to the other villain then asked. "Wanna go hit some kids with snowballs?"

Amazing Rope Guy raised an eyebrow.

"No, really!" Robbie insisted. "You said they hit you with snowballs, so now's the perfect time for revenge and maybe we can get them to shut up!"

Amazing Rope Guy frowned not really liking the idea of picking on kids but did have to admit they deserved it. "Did you forget we already got caught once today from Sportacus?"

Robbie waved a hand dismissively. "Once? Pffft, that's nothing. Sometimes, I pull as many as three schemes in one day. Sportaelf and those brats are relentless in their annoying healthy ways so I have to be relentless as well."

Amazing Rope Guy was certain they'd gotten off easy last time and wasn't sure he wanted to incur the hero's wrath by picking on the town's children. He looked awfully strong and didn't want to experience a pummelling from him.

"I don't think we should..."

Robbie crossed his arms and began tapping a foot, looking like a child about to have a tantrum. "Why not?" he demanded, sulkily.

"I don't want to get caught again so soon."

Robbie rolled his eyes. "Is that all, Rope Guy? That doesn't make any difference."

"It's Amazing Rope Guy, and why not?"

"Because Sportaflip, never does anything."

"Has he...has he ever hit you?" Amazing Rope Guy asked hesitantly.

Robbie stared at him with wide eyes for a moment then burst out laughing. "Sportacus? He's too much of a softie to ever hurt someone! He likes to lecture and blab on and on and try to force you to act and eat healthy but that's all he does. He'd never raise a hand against anyone!"

Amazing Rope Guy was slightly in awe. A pacifist superhero? Was that the word he was looking for? He'd never heard of such a thing! Even Word Girl would fight the villains if she needed to, so this was surprising. How could this hero even protect the town if he refused to fight? A whole new train of thought began opening up for him and he scratched his chin distractedly. The town's bank now seemed very, very tempting indeed and he seriously considered whether he should attempt it. He could break in right before he left town and no one could stop him! This would be the first successful crime he got away with in his own persona!

"HelloOo!" Robbie said, leaning into his field of vision, "Are you still in there?"

Amazing Rope Guy looked up. "Let's do it." he said with finality. "Let's snow those kids so badly they'll stay in until summer!"

Robbie's eyes lit up and he clapped his hands in glee. "Fantastic!"

Robbie practically flounced over to the other side of the lair and grabbed his winter clothes. He donned them as fast as he could then paused as he saw Amazing Rope Guy just in his costume.

"Hmm, you'll need a coat." he said glancing around. "I know I have a spare around here somewhere..."

"Is that it?" Amazing Rope Guy asked, pointing towards one of the costume tubes which had an identical coat, hat and mitten set in burgundy.

"Ah!" Robbie said, approaching it. He turned to Amazing Rope Guy. "Wanna try the costume changer?"

"Er, no thank you. I like my costume the way it is."

"Fine, suit yourself." Robbie said, hitting a button on the control panel.

The winter-wear swirled out of the tube and a moment later, landed in Robbie's outstretched arms. He tossed them over to the other villain then said.

"We should try to get the kids away from Sportatwit. That way we can get more shots at them before he 'rescues' them."

Amazing Rope Guy gave a nod as he slipped on the coat. Burgundy wasn't any better than purple against his blue costume but at least he wouldn't look like a walking bruise this time. Once he had everything on, they approached the ladder and began climbing.

"How do you do this everyday?" Amazing Rope Guy complained. "This is horrible! Why haven't you put in stairs or something?"

Robbie paused his climbing and looked down at him. "You don't like the hatch entrance?"

"No."

Robbie seemed a bit disappointed by this. "I designed it myself! I like the hatch! I do have another entrance but I only use it for deliveries and for large inventions."

Amazing Rope Guy supposed it really wasn't any of his business as every villain had their own quirks and fell silent. Once they were outside the pipe, they both squinted in the sunlight and glanced around the field, seeing the children in the distance.

"So what are we going to do about Sportacus?" Amazing Rope Guy asked.

"Leave that to me, I'm a professional at this sort of thing."

Curious what Robbie had in mind, Amazing Rope Guy followed after him across the field. Robbie walked up to the sleigh which was still lodged tightly in a snowbank and gestured at it proudly.

"Re-using inventions! I'm very Earth friendly today!" he gave a laugh as Amazing Rope Guy looked from the sleigh to him and back again.

"Nope. Not the sleigh! I'm using the tractor!" Robbie said, jumping up to grab the steering wheel and pull himself up.

Missing completely, he slipped backwards and fell on his backside in the snow ungracefully. "I meant to do that!" he said defensively as Amazing Rope Guy raised an eyebrow.

Recovering swiftly, he sprung back up and climbed up onto the tractor, proud as can be. "Unlatch the sleigh, will you?"

Doing as he was told, Amazing Rope Guy unhooked the sleigh then stood back to watch, curious to what Robbie was up to. Robbie started the engine, then carefully backed the tractor out and away from the sleigh.

"Hand me a big snowball or chunk of ice or something."

Amazing Rope Guy quickly rolled a snowball and handed it to the impatient Robbie who said. "Okay, now to get rid of Sportaquack!"

Hopping down, out of the tractor, he put the snowball on the gas pedal and watched as the tractor slowly made its way towards town.

Robbie gestured towards it proudly. "There! When that gets close to town, Sportaflip will be alerted to it and will rush to 'save the day' and that's when we make our move."

They both snuck across the field towards the children who were so involved in their game they didn't see them approaching and hid behind a snowbank.

"Minute Sportaloser is gone, we jump up and get 'em!" Robbie whispered as they both began rolling snowballs.

Amazing Rope Guy gave a nod.

It only took a few moments before they heard a high beeping and Sportacus said. "Someone is in trouble!"

Sportacus flipped right over their snowbank and the hero's eyes met theirs briefly for a moment in question but he didn't stop from hurrying across the field in the direction of the tractor.

"Okay, NOW!" Robbie yelled, jumping up, on top of the snowbank.

Amazing Rope Guy joined him and both started throwing the snowballs at the unsuspecting children causing shocked yells and cries of distress. Snowball after snowball was thrown at the children as they held up their hands to keep the snow out of their faces and they quickly ran from the two villains, screaming for Sportacus.

Once they were gone, Robbie burst out laughing, hands on hips, extremely pleased with himself. He stood on top of the snowbank, posing like some sort of victorious knight and said. "There, maybe that will teach the little rugrats!"

Amazing Rope Guy rolled his eyes at Robbie and looked down at the last snowball, wondering what to do with it. Turning it over in his hand, he glanced up at Robbie and gave a smirk. When Robbie was hit with the snowball, it shocked him so completely, he lost his balance and he slipped off the snowbank and slid down so he was level with Amazing Rope Guy. He looked up at the other villain, dumbfounded for a moment then narrowed his eyes.

"Did you just hit me with a snowball?" he demanded.

"Maybe?"

Robbie immediately gathered a handful of snow and packed it. He then proceeded to whip it back at Amazing Rope Guy as hard as he could. It caught the other man on the chin making him stumble backwards, the impact actually stinging, he too narrowed his eyes.

"Oh, it's on." he said, kneeling to get more snow.

Robbie got hit hard on the shoulder so he grabbed a handful of snow and scrambled to his feet as he began packing. He threw it at Amazing Rope Guy and hit him in the chest just as the other man threw one at him which he just barely managed to avoid.

Robbie grabbed more snow and ran a few feet and threw the snowball, successfully hitting the back of Amazing Rope Guy's head. Shaking off the snow, Amazing Rope Guy ran after Robbie with his own snowball and whipped it at him, hitting him in the stomach. Robbie quickly retreated, throwing a snowball as he did so.

Robbie jumped over the snowbank so he'd have some coverage and began building his next snowball, just as he got hit in the head with another one. He quickly retaliated with one that plowed Amazing Rope Guy right in the face.

Amazing Rope Guy let out a yelp as he quickly reached up to pick off the cold, slush and Robbie took that opportunity to hit him with another. Amazing Rope Guy having none of that, jumped on top of the snowbank and pummelled Robbie with two snowballs at once, hitting him in the face and chest. Robbie shoved him off the snowbank, causing the other villain to sprawl backwards into the snow and Robbie threw his own snowballs at him, not giving him enough time to recover.

Amazing Rope Guy rolled out of the way and reached out and grabbed Robbie by the arm pulling him over the snowbank and away from any protection. He dumped a bunch of snow over Robbie's head then jumped away before the other man could throw anything at him. Robbie sputtered for a moment, indignant and out for revenge. Shaking the snow off of himself, he rolled to his feet and grabbed a large handful of snow, packing it as he charged towards the other villain.

* * *

><p>After Sportacus had stopped the tractor, his crystal went off for a second time. Glancing over at the children, he saw them running towards him obviously upset. Hopping down from the tractor he watched them approach, wondering what had happened. When they were close enough, they immediately began voicing their woes to him.<p>

"Sportacus, it was horrible!" Stingy cried.

"Yeah!" Ziggy agreed.

"Robbie and Amazing Rope Guy hit us with snowballs!" Stephanie said indignantly.

"We weren't doing anything to them and they jumped out of nowhere and threw snowballs at us!" Trixie said angrily.

"They're being real bad today!" Ziggy complained. "And it's Christmas!"

Sportacus had wondered what the two villains were up to, now it was clear. This wasn't exactly big-time evil and none of the children seemed hurt so Sportacus simply sighed.

"Were any of you hurt?" he asked.

"Well, no..." Pixel answered.

"You guys were having a snowball fight at the time so maybe they just wanted to join in?" Sportacus suggested.

The kids all gave him a skeptical look.

"This is Robbie we're talking about." Stephanie pointed out. "He doesn't like to play."

Ziggy glanced back towards the villains then did a double-take. "Wow, guys! Look at them! Look at Robbie and Amazing Rope Guy!"

Everyone glanced over and they were shocked to see the most epic snowball fight taking place that they'd ever seen. Both men were whipping the snowballs so hard at each other it actually looked painful and were dodging and running to avoid the throws. Both were so involved in the fight, they didn't notice the onlookers. Sportacus' face lit up at the sight but the children looked awed and a bit uneasy.

"Are they fighting?" Stephanie asked.

Sportacus shook his head. "Play fighting. This isn't a snowball fight for children though, you'd get hurt. You'd better keep your distance."

Sportacus, unable to resist, began flipping over to the two villains.

Robbie had just thrown a snowball at Amazing Rope Guy and rolled to get out of the way of the retaliation.

"Hi guys!" Sportacus greeted, large friendly grin in place.

Both villains instantly froze what they were doing and turned to stare at the hero in apprehension, not sure of what he was going to say. Amazing Rope Guy remembered what Robbie had said about Sportacus being a pushover and decided it didn't really matter what the hero said. With a smirk he threw his snowball at Sportacus, hitting the hero in the chest with a loud 'splat'.

Robbie stared at him with an expression akin to a goldfish then looked back at Sportacus to see what he'd do. Sportacus seemed surprised at first then for some reason, extremely pleased. He then proceeded to kneel and grab some snow and pack it then throw the snowball back at Amazing Rope Guy. The throw had been extremely hard, and had actually winded him and the villain took a step back in surprise.

"Hey, you can't do that!" Robbie said angrily, whipping his own snowball at the hero.

Sportacus was hit upside the head and he quickly flipped out of harms way as a second snowball came his way. He tossed two snowballs at once hitting both men and the villains knew this was war. They instantly ducked down behind a snow-drift, as Sportacus threw another. Amazing Rope Guy began making the snowballs as Robbie threw them so they'd have a constant stream of fire going and Sportacus was forced to constantly flip and dodge out of the way as he threw his snowballs at the men.

"Stupid sportself! Stay still!" Robbie yelled.

"Sorry, Robbie, you'll just have to catch me!" Sportacus yelled back, hitting him hard with a snowball.

Robbie fell back with a grunt and Amazing Rope Guy grabbed a few snowballs and crawled out from behind the drift and ran at Sportacus, throwing snowballs as he did so. The hero easily dodged them, used to exercises like this and in turn hit the villain with a few, knocking him to the ground.

"You're cheating!" Robbie whined.

Sportacus paused, standing upside down on one hand. "Cheating? How?"

"You're using your stupid elf powers! Stop cheating and fight fairly!"

Sportacus let out a laugh. "Elf powers? Being in shape doesn't make you magical Robbie!"

Being distracted, Sportacus didn't notice Amazing Rope Guy sneaking up behind him with a giant snowball the size of a watermelon. Lifting it above his head, he threw it at Sportacus and hit the man in the back knocking him face first into the snow.

Robbie let out a 'whoop'. "Ha ha, Sportaflop! That's one for team evil!"

Amazing Rope Guy raised an eyebrow. "Team evil?"

Robbie nodded as he threw a snowball at Sportacus as the hero got to his feet. It hit him in the shoulder and Sportacus instantly grabbed some snow and flung a snowball at Robbie as he flipped away to safety. An all out battle now took place, both villains chasing after Sportacus as all three threw as many snowballs as they could. Each of them were running, dodging and flinging snow as hard as they could, determined to beat the other.

The children were watching in awe. They stayed a good distance away as the fight looked extremely violent and couldn't believe Sportacus had joined in on it. They had seated themselves down comfortably so they could have a good view and were currently debating who would win.

"But Sportacus is all by himself!" Trixie pointed out. "No way he can win, just look at him!"

"He's Sportacus, he always wins!" Stephanie said hotly.

"Yeah," Ziggy agreed. "He's probably just letting them hit him!"

"Why would he do that?" Stingy demanded. "That's kind of dumb."

"It is kind of illogical." Pixel agreed. "The point is to win, to make the other team surrender, not to allow the other team to pummel you!"

Ziggy scratched his head in thought. "But it wouldn't be very fun if you could never hit him. Maybe that's why Sportacus is letting them hit him?"

"Hmm, maybe, that would make sense." Pixel agreed with a nod.

* * *

><p>Robbie was puffing hard as he ran and threw the snowball. It managed to hit Sportacus right in the face and the lanky villain gave a cheer. Sportacus grabbed his own snowball and went for the nearest villain which happened to be Amazing Rope Guy.<p>

Amazing Rope Guy was not used to this much exertion and was slow to react. When Sportacus knocked him down with a particularly hard throw, he stayed down, the ground feeling nice at the moment. He laid there completely out of breath, panting hard and a moment later two concerned blue eyes looked down at him.

"Are you alright?" Sportacus asked a bit worried.

Amazing Rope Guy simply groaned.

Robbie approached and looked down at him, also out of breath and frowned.

"You broke him."

Sportacus knelt down, also frowning a bit. "I think maybe it's time we took a break."

Robbie let out a snort and poked Amazing Rope Guy with his foot. "This means we win, Sportadork. You're giving up!"

Sportacus smiled and shook his head in amusement. "Okay, Robbie. Whatever you say. I should really go check on the children and see what they're up to. It was fun playing with you."

Robbie instantly bristled, completely indignant. "We were not playing! That was us beating on you!"

Sportacus simply smiled as he flipped away across the field, not even winded in the least. Robbie watched him go sulkily then turned his attention back to the other villain.

"Think you'll live?" he asked sarcastically.

Amazing Rope Guy let out a wheeze in response.

Robbie sighed dramatically and began kicking snow on top of him, successfully burying his legs and waist completely. Not especially caring, Amazing Rope Guy stared up at the sky thoughtfully as he caught his breath.

"Hey, it's snowing!" he pointed out.

Robbie paused a moment and glanced around, seeing little flecks of snow starting to swirl around them.

"Huh."

Finally starting to get his breathing more under control, Amazing Rope Guy asked. "Is it always like this in Lazytown?"

"Like what?" Robbie demanded, kicking more snow on top of him.

"So peaceful."

"Peaceful? Lazytown will never be peaceful as long as Sportacus is in town! Once he's gone FOREVER, maybe then it'll be peaceful!"

Amazing Rope Guy smiled slightly realizing Robbie had no idea what he was talking about.

"It's cold out here." Robbie whined. "Let's go inside and get some hot chocolate."

"I like it here." Amazing Rope Guy stated glancing towards the small town.

Robbie crossed his arms, misunderstanding. "Move it or I'll bury your head too!"

Amazing Rope Guy was already buried up to his neck so he relented and rolled into a sitting position. Robbie watched impatiently as he got to his feet then said.

"Hurry up, I'm all soggy and cold."

As Amazing Rope Guy followed after Robbie, he observed how it was starting to snow harder. "It's really starting to come down." he stated.

Robbie let out a disinterested grunt, having seen it snow like this hundreds of times.

When they reached the pipe, Robbie seemed to be having a hard time opening the hatch, his fingers numb and stiff. When he managed to get it open, he crawled into the pipe, glad to get out of the cold. He disappeared out of view and Amazing Rope Guy waited a few seconds not wanting to land on the other man. When he was sure Robbie would have had ample time to get out of the way, he crawled into the pipe, closing it as he did so.

Slick from the snow, he slid down the pipe a lot faster than he would have liked and landed in a bent heap on Robbie's chair. Robbie already had his coat off and was kicking off his boots but he paused to give him a 'look'.

"Off my chair, you're getting snow on it."

Amazing Rope Guy stood and began removing the soaked coat and gloves as Robbie went to the costume changer to get himself some dry clothes. His regular costume was just as wet as the winter clothes and Amazing Rope Guy frowned down at himself. A moment later, Robbie came over and took the winter clothes from him and threw them on top of the nearby heater. Robbie then turned to him and gave him an eager look.

"Okay, now hot chocolate with tons of marshmallows!" he announced, striding over to the other side of his hideout.

Amazing Rope Guy was feeling sweaty from all the exercise and his costume felt like ice against his skin. Robbie may feel better now that **he** was dry but he certainly didn't. Absolutely freezing and feeling rather gross, he glanced over at Robbie uncertainly.

"Do you mind if I took a shower?" he asked.

Robbie paused, two cups still in his hands. "You don't want hot chocolate?"

"I'd rather have a shower at the moment."

Robbie shrugged and waved in the basic direction of the bathroom. "Yeah, yeah, help yourself. I don't care."

Walking across the lair towards the outer hallway, Amazing Rope Guy headed towards the bathroom, longing for a hot shower. Once there, he entered and closed the door after him, looking around the large bathroom thoughtfully. Approaching the bathtub, he turned on the shower and turned away as the water got warm. Pulling down his hood, he shook his head, his hair wet from sweat. Knowing he probably looking positively dreadful right now, he sighed and began stripping, throwing his mask on the edge of the sink.

When he stepped into the hot stream of water, Amazing Rope Guy let out a sigh of relief and closed his eyes. He pulled the curtain across and simply stood in the water, enjoying it. After standing there for an unknown amount of time lost in bliss, he finally reached for a bar of soap. Several minutes later he felt slightly more human and reached for the shampoo. Popping open the top he was hit with a sickeningly sweet smell and looked down at the label. Candy apple shampoo.

"Ew." Amazing Rope Guy commented, not sure he wanted to put that in his hair.

He gave the bottle another sniff then hesitantly poured a bit into his hand. It was thick and red like candy apple syrup which didn't exactly help its case at all and he sighed. Not having much of a choice, he began scrubbing at his hair, the smell of sugar filling the air around him. Once he'd rinsed all the soap out of his hair, he continued enjoying the water, wondering how much longer the hot water would last. After a few minutes, he reluctantly turned the water off and pulled back the curtain.

Steam filled the room like a thick cloud and he carefully stepped out, wondering where Robbie kept the towels. Finding a large body towel in one of the closets, he dried at his hair a bit then quickly dried himself off. Reaching for his mask, his hand met cold marble. Glancing at the sink, he saw that his mask was gone and frowned. Looking down at the floor, he didn't see it laying around anywhere and then noticed his costume was missing too.

Amazing Rope Guy looked around the bathroom completely bewildered. What exactly was going on? His costume was nowhere in sight and he became annoyed. Wrapping the towel around himself like a blanket, he opened the bathroom door and peered out. Not seeing the costume outside the door, he frowned and supposed Robbie had to have taken it. But why would another villain want his costume? It didn't make any sense.

Walking out into the lair, he found Robbie seated at a work table, furiously working over something.

"Where are my clothes?" Amazing Rope Guy demanded, clearly irritated.

Robbie looked up and Amazing Rope Guy could now see what he was doing. The other man was bent over a sewing machine, his costume in hand.

Amazing Rope Guy's eyes widened. "What are you doing?"

Robbie looked at him in vague interest. "Huh, you have red hair."

"What are you doing to my costume!" Amazing Rope Guy demanded.

"This? No. Your costume is being washed, I'm making you a spare."

Amazing Rope Guy approached and looked over Robbie's shoulder. Sure enough he could see the almost finished costume and was surprised. "You did all this while I was in the shower? How did you have time?"

"It's a pretty simple design." Robbie responded. "I sew all my costumes."

"Huh." Amazing Rope Guy stated. "Think it will be much longer? I'm in a towel."

Robbie gave him a reprimanding look. "You can't hurry genius."

"Right." Amazing Rope Guy muttered, taking a seat on the orange fuzzy chair.

As the sewing machine hummed, he let out a sigh.

* * *

><p>Doctor Two-Brains muttered to himself irritably as he unlocked the front door to his lair. It figures that he'd be the one to forget the Christmas presents. The party had been going great and now he was outside in the cold and dark by himself to carry the presents back. The others had better appreciate this, seeing as he'd had to gnaw through a wall to escape the prison.<p>

With a sigh he opened the door then paused. Why were all the lights on? Doctor Two-Brains scowled. Henchmen! They were always leaving the lights on! No wonder the light bill was always so high! Closing the door after him, he kicked the snow and slush off his boots then crossed the lair where he'd stashed the gifts.

He was about halfway across the room when he caught sight of what used to be his worktable. The table was a melted mass of metal that had re-hardened into a shapeless heap.

"What in cheddars name?" he gasped, flustered.

His henchmen would have told him if they did something like this, they wouldn't have just left it. Someone else had been in his lair.

Narrowing his eyes, his gaze flickered over the inventions which were spread out over the floor, looking for any that were missing. Instantly seeing that the grappling gun and the teleportation watch were gone, he became furious.

"Who would dare break into my home and steal from the great Doctor Two-Brains?" he cried out dramatically. "Has the world really become so corrupt that the other villains have started stealing from each other?"

Doctor Two-Brains ran his hands through his wild white hair in agitation. His pink eyes were narrowed to slits as he thought things through, kicking the melted worktable as he did so.

"If he or she took the grappling gun and teleporter then I'm assuming they were pulling a job. Hmm... if they use or have used the teleportation watch then I can track where they went."

Crossing the room to where a large series of computers sat, he flicked a switch and they all flashed on instantly, displaying multiple password screens. Typing in his passwords, he accessed the teleporters file to see if he could trace the data signature.

"Let's see..." Doctor Two-Brains said, looking through the data he pulled up. "It looks like the departure was...here? They teleported from my lab?"

Scrolling down through the data a bit further he saw the information became very jumbled and impossible to read as if the equipment had some sort of malfunction. Going all the way to the bottom to see if he could make out where the person had gone, he saw he could read a bit of it. Squinting at it, he looked at the destination then raised an eyebrow in question.

"Latibær? What is he-she doing in Iceland?"

He looked again at the results making sure it was correct then scratched his head, puzzled.

"Oh, well, no matter."

Pulling open the computer desk drawer, he dug through it a moment then pulled out a finished teleportation watch. Strapping it to his wrist, he stood and approached a wall of weapons. Grabbing his favourite cheese ray, he was more than ready for his revenge now.

"Okay, to Iceland I go." Doctor Two-Brains said, a determined expression on his face.

Inputting the correct co-ordinates, he zapped out of view with a puff of smoke. When he reappeared, he was standing in the middle of a sleepy little town, the air cold and it was snowing hard. Glancing around, he didn't see any signs of anything villainous; no destruction, or mayhem and he gave a frown. Tightening his hold on the gun, he began walking down the street, looking for any signs of life.

Hearing laughter, he headed towards the sound and came across several children building a snowman in front of a quant little house. Dressed in all white and very pale himself, the children didn't notice him at first, the villain blending in almost completely with the snow. It was a small blond boy who caught sight of him and looked at him curiously. Giving him a large friendly smile, he ran up to him.

"Halló! Hver ert þú?"

Doctor Two-Brains waved at the child irritably. "Go away! Farðu burt!"

His Icelandic was a bit rusty as he hadn't done much travelling since becoming a mad scientist and didn't feel like talking to the locals. He only had one thing on his mind right now and that was shooting a cheese ray at whoever had robbed him.

The children all approached him and whispered amongst themselves, staring at his strange appearance. One boy, dressed in all yellow, pointed at his second brain with wide eyes as the other continued to whisper.

"Now that's just rude." Doctor Two-Brains grumbled. "Nosy Icelanders."

Aiming the cheese ray at the snow man, he fired, delighted when it turned into Swiss cheese. Giving an appreciative sniff in its direction, he smirked at the children's distress.

"Well, you shouldn't have been rude!"

"Íþrótaálfurinn! Íþrótaálfurinn!" one of the children yelled, looking all around desperately. "Íþrótaálfurinn!"

The doctor didn't know this word and wondered what it meant. As he pondered this, he got his answer as a strong, blue-clothed figure back-flipped over the garden wall to the children. He knelt next to them in concern and asked.

"Börn, hvað er rangt?"

"Hann er meina!" the little blond boy yelled out, pointing at Doctor Two-Brains.

The man, Íþrótaálfurinn Doctor Two-Brains assumed was his name, turned to gaze at him in surprise and looked him up and down.

"Hvað gerði hann?" he asked the children.

The children all instantly pointed at the ruined snowman. Íþrótaálfurinn glanced at the cheeseman and Doctor Two-Brains tilted his chin proudly. Frowning a bit, the strange blue-clad man took a few steps towards him and the doctor lifted the gun threateningly.

"Back off unless you want cheese for a head!" Doctor Two-Brains threatened.

Íþrótaálfurinn seemed even more surprised. "You're English?" he asked, his voice heavily accented.

"American." Doctor Two-Brains answered. "At least someone in this snow-hole speaks English. I was getting worried there for a bit."

"Yes, I speak English. My name is Íþrótaálfurinn but I believe in English they call me Sportacus."

"Okay 'Sportacus' you're going to help me."

"What do you want?" Sportacus asked, stancing himself in case he had to dodge a shot from the gun.

Doctor Two-Brains nose twitched in annoyance and he shot a nearby tree. "You know what I'm after or rather 'who'!

Sportacus gave the villain a confused look as he honestly didn't know. This villain was obviously more of a threat than the others as he didn't want any of the people getting hit with that cheese ray. Knowing he had to calm the man down before someone got hurt, he held up his hands soothingly.

"Who are you looking for? What happened?"

"I'm looking for another villain, one from my city. They broke into my lair, destroyed the place and stole some of my inventions!"

Sportacus cocked his head. "Do you mean ótrúlegt reipi strákur? He came to town a couple days ago."

Doctor Two-Brains just stared at him a moment as his mind translated those words. "Amazing Rope Guy. Amazing Rope Guy did all that?" he let out a sigh. "I suppose with him it's not all that surprising."

Doctor Two-Brains could now visualize a series of accidents and calamities that happened in his lab that ended with Amazing Rope Guy in Iceland. Incredibly annoyed, he raised his gun and blasted another tree.

"Where is he?"

He blasted a lamppost then the blond boys lollipop. "Tell me where he is!"

Seriously considering blasting Amazing Rope Guy once he found him, Doctor Two-Brains gave a stomp of anger when he received no answer. He was quite shocked when the gun was pulled out of his hands. Sportacus held it away from him, a scolding expression on his face.

"You have just lost this!" he stated. "I'll give it back to you when you go home."

Doctor Two-Brains could not believe someone would dare do that to him. Did he not know he was the number one villain in Fair City? Narrowing his eyes, he scrambled for the gun which Sportacus held out of his reach. The man even had the audacity to put his hand on his chest to hold him back. Letting his mouse instincts take over for a moment, he sunk his teeth into the arm shocking Sportacus into letting him go.

"Ha!" Doctor Two-Brains laughed. "Mouse power!"

Sportacus stared down at the bite-mark on his arm then his expression turned stern. Before Doctor Two-Brains had time to move, the man had cartwheeled behind him and grabbed him by the middle, pinning his arms to his torso. Doctor Two-Brains let out a squall of surprise and struggled and kicked all to no avail.

"I think you need to calm down and have a time out." Sportacus advised him.

"Who do you think you are!" Doctor Two-Brains yelled. "Don't you realize I'm a villain?"

"Yes and I'm Sportacus, the town hero."

Doctor Two-Brains hesitated. "Oh..." he stated visibly slumping. "I guess this is your business then."

Seeing that the villain wasn't fighting him any longer, Sportacus released him then said. "ótrúlegt reipi strákur is your friend?"

"His name is Amazing Rope Guy. I kind of want to blast him with something but yeah, I suppose he's my friend."

Sportacus held out his hand with a smile. "Glad to meet you, welcome to Latibær! Are you here to take him home?"

Doctor Two-Brains stared at the hand with a wrinkled nose and didn't take it. "If I'm feeling generous." he replied.

"He'll be so happy to see you!"

Doctor Two-Brains punched a fist into his hand and smiled wickedly. "Go get him, will you?"

Sportacus gave him an uneasy look. 'I'll let him know you're here but you have to behave yourself!"

Doctor Two-Brains waved him away dismissively. "Whatever."

"I'll be back in a few minutes! You can play with the children while I'm gone!"

At that Sportacus backflipped away out of sight and the doctor was left with some very curious looking children that were staring at him. He sighed.

* * *

><p>Robbie finished the last few stitches and pulled the costume away from the sewing machine triumphantly.<p>

"Ta-da! What do you think?"

Amazing Rope Guy had to admit it looked exactly like his other costume. "It's good." he complimented.

"Good? Pfft, it's fantastic!" Robbie said huffily, throwing it at him.

Amazing Rope Guy caught the costume and stood, still clutching the towel around himself. Just holding the costume made him feel almost normal already. Stepping behind a bunch of machinery, he slipped on the costume, draping the towel beside him. Running his hands through his hair for a moment, he found it had dried sticking up every which way as usual. Just as he was about to pull up his hood, a loud rattling from above could be heard. Pausing, he looked up.

A moment later, Sportacus flew out of the pipe landing nimbly on his feet. Amazing Rope Guy realizing his secret identity was in clear view to the hero, quickly grabbed the towel and covered his head. Sportacus only caught a glimpse of red-hair before Amazing Rope Guy covered his face and realized he'd caught the villain off-guard.

Amazing Rope Guy fumbled underneath the towel to pull up his hood and fix his mask appropriately and a moment later he lowered the towel. Sportacus gave him a curious look then said.

"There's someone outside looking for you, Amazing Rope Guy ."

Amazing Rope Guy cocked his head. "Who?"

"A man with fuzzy white hair and a long white coat. I took this from him." Sportacus held up the cheese ray.

"Doctor Two-Brains! He came to find me!" Amazing Rope Guy said excitedly.

Robbie crossed his arms. "You mentioned him before. He's a villain too, isn't he?"

Amazing Rope Guy nodded. "Now I can go home! I don't have to stay here until after New Years!"

Robbie didn't look impressed. "I wasn't aware my company was that horrible."

"You know what I mean, Robbie. Nothing is like home, I've never been away from the city!"

"Did you want to see this doctor friend of yours?" Sportacus asked. "You don't have to go if you don't want to."

"No, I want to. Where is he?"

"He's with the children at Stephanie's house. Come on, I'll show you!" Sportacus said with a grin.

Without another word, Sportacus jumped up the pipe and disappeared from sight. Robbie and Amazing Rope Guy exchanged a look.

"The hero knows where you live?"

Robbie sighed. "Long story."

Robbie slipped on his boots and they both followed after Sportacus, the elf already outside. Once outside as well, Amazing Rope Guy was surprised when he found he wasn't as cold as he'd been before. Touching the material of his costume curiously, he looked over at Robbie.

"Is this insulated?"

"No, it's my own invention for the material. It keeps body heat in."

"Huh, neat."

As they crossed the field, Amazing Rope Guy couldn't help but look over at Robbie who seemed bothered by something. His expression looked troubled and he wondered what was wrong. Not sure if it was his business to ask, Amazing Rope Guy didn't mention it. The moment they reached the main street, he could immediately see Doctor Two-Brains kicking at some sort of strange holey snowman. When they got closer they saw him pick up a chunk of the snowman and begin eating it and now Amazing Rope Guy understood.

Doctor Two-Brains paused when he saw them and narrowed his eyes at Amazing Rope Guy.

"YOU!" he yelled out, pointing at him accusingly.

Amazing Rope Guy now remembered exactly what he'd done to Doctor Two-Brains lab and gave the other man a sheepish look.

"It was an accident!" he assured him. "And I wasn't stealing, I was only borrowing but everything sort of went wrong..."

"You're an accident." Doctor Two-Brains muttered. "You owe me a new worktable."

Amazing Rope Guy shifted slightly. "...and a new teleporter watch."

Doctor Two-Brains crossed his arms. "You broke the teleportation watch?"

"It sort of exploded..."

Doctor Two-Brains threw his hands in the air like he was just giving up in general. "Let's just go home, it's Christmas. I'll destroy you tomorrow."

Amazing Rope Guy gave a nod. "Er, ok."

Turning to Robbie he said, "I'm going home with Doctor Two-Brains, Robbie. Thank you for letting me stay with you."

Robbie seemed furious. "That's it then? You're just leaving like that? What about our partnership?"

Amazing Rope Guy was surprised. "Robbie, what are you talking about?"

"Never mind, just never mind!" Robbie snarled, storming off without another word much to the surprise of everyone.

Doctor Two-Brains was the most surprised however but for other reasons. "When did you learn Icelandic?" he asked Amazing Rope Guy.

"Eh?"

"How long have you known Icelandic?"

"Icelandic? I don't speak Icelandic."

At that statement, Sportacus began to laugh and Doctor Two-Brains just looked confused. "You were just speaking Icelandic!"

"What? No I wasn't."

"Yes you were." Sportacus agreed. "You've been speaking Icelandic since we met."

"What?" Amazing Rope Guy cried, flabbergasted. "How? I don't know Icelandic! I didn't even know that was a language!"

Doctor Two-Brains scratched his chin now interested. "You said the teleporter exploded?"

"Yes?"

"Hmm, maybe the malfunction of the equipment did something to your brain while you were being teleported. That's the most likely possibility."

"How can I speak in a different language and not realize?"

Doctor Two-Brains gave a shrug. "You have the worst luck when it comes to life. I'll have to run some tests on you when we get back to make sure there wasn't any damage done to you."

Amazing Rope Guy was in complete disbelief. "Icelandic? Really? Icelandic?"

Sportacus seemed really amused but didn't say anything.

"Come on, I still have to get back to the party. Everyone's waiting for their presents. I suppose you could tag along if you wanted." Doctor Two-Brains stated.

Still in a bit of a daze, Amazing Rope Guy gave a nod. Doctor Two-Brains grabbed him by the arm and then typed some co-ordinates into the watch. Sportacus handed Doctor Two-Brains his gun which he gladly accepted back. A moment later both villains disappeared from sight leaving Sportacus to stare at the empty spot in surprise. That was strange. Giving a slight stretch he wondered if Amazing Rope Guy would come back to visit them some day or whether his adventures in Lazytown had come to a close.


End file.
